Liverpool face a trio of absentees for Wednesday's Premier League clash with Sunderland at Anfield. The Dutch boss addressed player availability during Tuesday's press conference, revealing mixed news on the injury front. Conor Bradley has made his return to training sessions, though he remains short of full fitness.
Meanwhile, Jeremie Frimpong is edging closer to a comeback after picking up a muscle problem in October. "Conor got into a training session yesterday for the first time, team training," Slot confirmed.
"He's not everything 100 per cent yet so we have to manage that a little bit, so don't get your hopes up too soon, too fast. The good thing is he does certain things with the group already.
"We expect the same with Jeremie next week. The two of them will come back but, unfortunately, we play a lot of games in the upcoming weeks. Jeremie, at least, will be training with us but he miss out on at least three more games, for example. I hope Conor will be available for Leeds."
The unavailability of both defenders has forced Slot to utilise Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Joe Gomez at right-back across their previous three fixtures.
The third missing player is long-term casualty Giovanni Leoni, who sustained an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury in September and faces a season-long layoff.
"He is not in a good place because he tore his ACL, which means he will be out around a year," Slot said at the time. "Being so young and coming to a new country and playing so well in your first game, it's very hard to take the positives.
"But you try to look at that, and that is that he is still so young, and he has so many years still to go after he recovers.'"
Slot also confirmed that Szoboszlai, who came in for Mohamed Salah on the right wing at West Ham, isn't a natural replacement and would want to play "wingers playing as wingers" going forward.
Liverpool aren't the only side dealing with missing players, as Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris also gave an update on three squad members ahead of Wednesday evening's clash.
Mouhamadou Habib Diarra continues his spell on the sidelines whilst recovering from groin surgery. Meanwhile, Noah Sadiki is nursing a facial injury picked up during the weekend victory over Bournemouth, though Le Bris remains optimistic he will be available.
"He's suffered and he still is now," the French manager explained. "He will be okay for Wednesday but he suffered."
Meanwhile, Dennis Cirkin and Leo Hjelde progressed their rehabilitation with appearances for the Under-21s last week. "They are really close which is good news," Le Bris commented.
"Like Romaine one week before. It's really important to have everyone connected and in their best shape so they're ready."