Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has remained tight-lipped on his side's deadline day pursuit of Bayern Munich midfielder Ryan Gravenberch.
The Reds are believed to have struck an agreement to sign the Dutchman permanently for a fee of £34.2m, and he has agreed personal terms over a five-year contract.
Gravenberch has supposedly already landed in England to complete his medical with the Merseyside giants, where he is set to become their fourth signing of the summer window.
The 21-year-old will follow Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo to Anfield as Liverpool complete their summer midfield refresh, and Klopp was inevitably asked for an update in Friday's press conference ahead of Sunday's meeting with Aston Villa.
However, the German insisted that he was not prepared to comment on any speculation while a deal remains unconfirmed, responding: "I'm really sorry to disappoint you but we cannot talk about that because nothing has really happened yet.
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"It's Friday right? If something happens then we can talk about it on Sunday. It's deadline day, so I don't want to kill the excitement of the people, you never know. But I'm busy today with other things!"
While Liverpool have purely focused on bolstering their engine room this summer, Klopp will be left short on numbers in the heart of defence for the visit of the free-scoring Lions, as Virgil van Dijk serves a suspension following his red card against Newcastle United last weekend.
The Dutchman is also at risk of a lengthier ban as he faces an FA charge of improper conduct, having been accused of using abusive and/or insulting language towards the officials at St James' Park.
Liverpool were already without Ibrahima Konate against Newcastle due to an unspecified injury, and Klopp has conceded that the Frenchman will also sit out the visit of Unai Emery's side, which could see Joel Matip and Joe Gomez pair up in defence.
The Reds had been tipped to add to their defensive ranks before 11pm on Friday, but Klopp shot down that possibility, adding: "Ibou will not be ready for the game. If we could bring in a centre-half for the weekend we would think about it, but no, we can't."
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Thiago Alcantara has also suffered a setback in his recovery from a hip injury and will remain out until after the international break, but Curtis Jones is in line to return from a blow to the ankle.
"Curtis is back in training fully. Thiago not. Thiago had a little setback. [He] started training with the team and then had a little setback, so we have to slow down there a little bit," Klopp added.
"It's not cool for him, it's not cool for us but it's how it is. Thiago will use the international break for that then obviously to be up to speed, I'm pretty sure that should be hopefully enough for him then. All the rest, until now, are available."
The 10 men of Liverpool came from a goal down to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Newcastle last weekend, as Darwin Nunez's brace off the bench sealed a 2-1 win.
The Reds have taken seven points from their opening three matches to sit fourth in the table ahead of the visit of Villa, who beat Hibernian 3-0 in midweek to seal a place in the Europa Conference League group stages via an 8-0 aggregate triumph.
Ben Knapton
