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Liverpool are keen to sign Yankuba Minteh and could increase their offer as early as today.

Liverpool are preparing their next step in the Yankuba Minteh pursuit, despite what has been described as a 'bizarre' issue.

The Reds began their Premier League campaign with a frustrating draw at St James' Park, where Dominik Szoboszlai rescued a point for Liverpool with a dramatic late penalty against a resilient Newcastle United.

However, even with calls for the club to recruit more defensively minded players — including from Anfield legend Jamie Carragher on Monday Night Football, where he criticised his former side's opening display — Liverpool are continuing with plans to add two more wingers before the transfer window closes in a week, with Minteh emerging as the leading option on the right wing.

Liverpool have already seen two bids for Yankuba Minteh turned down over the past week.

The Gambia international has become the Reds' main candidate to succeed Mohamed Salah on the right side, with TEAMtalk reporting that the club are considering whether to raise their bid to at least £65 million.

The report calls Liverpool's ongoing interest 'bizarre', though, after journalist Florian Plettenberg revealed that Minteh is expected to be sidelined for a minimum of eight weeks.

The Brighton & Hove Albion player suffered the injury during pre-season against Roma and was absent for the Seagulls' emphatic home win over Aston Villa at the weekend, with Plettenberg stating that he may need 'two to three months to be fully match-fit after his injury'.

Considering how disjointed Liverpool appeared in their draw with Newcastle, the injury update will come as a setback for new manager Andoni Iraola, who is trying to bring his squad up to speed and embed his methods as quickly as possible.

Youngster Rio Ngumoha started out of position on the right on Tyneside, while the Reds were also left with issues around their attack-minded full-backs, the shortage of cover in defensive midfield, how best to offset the advancing age of Virgil van Dijk, and which role is the best fit for big-money creator Florian Wirtz.

FourFourTwo understands that a fee of about £70m would be enough for Brighton to agree to a deal, with journalist Ben Jacobs backing up that valuation on TalkSPORT.

'With Minteh, they held some talks over the weekend,' he said, before adding, 'They're deciding today; so it could change any minute and very quickly whether they want to make a third bid.'

'If they go to £70m, it'll be a done deal, according to Brighton sources: my sense is Liverpool might consider £65m first.'

According to Transfermarkt, Minteh is valued at €45m. Liverpool return to Premier League action against Nottingham Forest next weekend.