Xabi Alonso provides Emi Martinez return timeline after horror head injury

Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version from Independent or go back to LFC Live.

He had the surgery and day by day he’s feeling better but we still need to wait. The good thing is he’s feeling better.

He needs to listen to the opinion of the doctors and his surgeons but considering that it was a bad one, he’s doing good.”Martinez’s absence opens up an opportunity for second-choice goalkeeper Mike Penders, 21, to get an extended run in the side, which will start when Chelsea host struggling Tottenham in a London derby on Saturday.The Belgian, who spent last season on loan at sister club Strasbourg, made his Premier League debut off the bench at the Hill Dickinson Stadium last week and Alonso is confident he is ready to step into the limelight.Mike Penders will come into the side for an extended run amid Martinez's absence (Getty)“He’s ready,” said Alonso. “He’s been training well, he’s played a couple of cup games where he’s showed he has a good level.

“When he came on against Everton, he showed his personality, his qualities, so that’s why we have a squad to be ready for these kind of situations and we are fully convinced that Mike can play very well.”Penders has had comparisons to countryman and former Chelsea stopper Thibaut Courtois, something that Alonso very much recognises."A lot [of similarities],” he said. He said himself he could see resemblances with Mike.“We need to help him and support him, but he is the keeper for the present and the future.”