Jurgen Klopp will miss Liverpool‘s trip to Chelsea on January 2 after returning a suspected positive test for Covid-19.
Klopp has mild symptoms and will isolate ahead of the fixture. Assistant manager Pep Lijnders will be in charge of Liverpool for the match at Stamford Bridge.
Liverpool said in a statement testing of the entire first-team set-up has revealed no further positive cases within the playing squad in addition to the three confirmed by Klopp on Friday.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has returned a suspected positive case of Covid-19
Klopp’s assistant manager, Pep Lijnders, will now take charge of Liverpool against Chelsea
Three backroom staff members have returned suspected positive results, however.
Should the positive test be confirmed, Klopp will also miss the midweek League Cup semi-final away to Arsenal.
Speaking on Friday, Klopp said: ‘We have three new Covid cases in the team, more in the staff.
‘I’m not able to say (who has tested positive) because we still need to do a PCR but you’ll see tomorrow on the team sheet, it’ll be clear.’
Asked if Liverpool were close to asking the Premier League to postpone the fixture, Klopp said: ‘Not yet. We never had this sort of proper outbreak yet, it’s more every day there’s another one.
Liverpool face Chelsea in a big clash at Stamford Bridge looking to keep their title hopes alive
‘It feels like a lottery in the morning when you are waiting for results.
‘It was now pretty much day by day there would be one case, today another one and now we have to wait. The boys aren’t even in yet.
‘At the moment, probably not (likely to ask for the game to be postponed) but we are not sure how it’ll look like in a few hours.’
Liverpool are currently third in the Premier League table and are looking to hit back after losing against Leicester on December 28.
