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Liverpool players travelling and playing in countries with
different COVID-19 protocols has the manager worried.
Even in the best of times, international breaks are a source of
anxiety for managers and fans alike. Potential for injuries,
players being overplayed and mismanaged by international managers
needing results, and travel fatigue are just a few of the potential
problems a club manager has to face when their players head out for
international duty. Now, managers have to worry about their players
contracting COVID-19 while playing for their countries as well.
Players on who have been called up will travelling and playing
in areas where mitigation protocols and exposure risks may be much
different than what they’re used to in England. With many of his
first team players leaving to join their national teams after
Sunday’s match at Aston Villa,
Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, has expressed his
worries about the potential for players picking up COVID-19.
“I don’t want to sound disrespectful about how other countries
are doing it,” said Klopp. “But this is the place that we know and
we know how we are dealing with it.”
It can be challenging to keep in contact with the all of the
national Football Associations for updates and to make sure players
are being kept safe while travelling, which increases the risk of
contracting COVID-19. This is especially true for a team like
Liverpool, who will have many players from many countries departing
to play for their national teams.
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“So I am slightly concerned because it is difficult to be in
contact with all FAs (football associations) all over the world,”
continued Klopp. “I understand it, I really understand how
difficult the situation is, but it’s not exactly perfect, the
information we get from certain FAs.”
Liverpool will face Everton
in their first match following the international break on October
17, and Klopp also expressed some concerns about the difficulty of
playing a game so soon after travelling back from international
duty.
“We send the players away and then we have another challenge
because we have to play a Premier League game on a Saturday after
they have travelled from, maybe Peru, on the Thursday or Friday,”
the manager added.
“You have to make sure you bring the players home in the
quickest and safest way, and then we have to see how they are
before we try to get a result on the Saturday.”
All that we can do is cross our fingers and hope Liverpool will
be able to emerge from the break injury and COVID free, and pick up
a win in the Merseyside Derby.