Jurgen Klopp will spend the next few weeks with fingers crossed hoping his players return fit and healthy after this next round of international fixtures.
The German is known across the Football landscape for speaking out about player welfare issues such as the increasing issue of fixture congestion and currently the distinct possibility of contracting COVID-19.
While Klopp would never actively deprive a player the honour of his playing for his country, he is rightly concerned about the unwillingness of international confederations to share information about their own COVID protocols.
He spoke about his frustration about being kept in the dark (per the Mirror).
“For us it feels safer when we are all together here at the training ground. We have had some cases, not many but some – though not for a while which is good – but it can happen because of the time we are living in.
“But the problem when they go on international duty is we have no power.
"We tried to find out what all the protocols are with all the different FAs but it’s up to those individual FAs to answer or not.
“They don’t have to – and FIFA so far is not really involved in that.
“It would be a massive help that if you don’t get a reply from an FA, for example, then you don’t send the player. And then I’m certain you would get 100 per cent replies and you’d know that the protocols are all fine.
One of the players of greatest concern for Klopp is Sadio Mane who along with his Senegal teammates have to travel to Guinea-Bissau , a nation which is currently a Covid hotspot and which the UK government have advised that only essential travel should be made to.
The likes of Roberto Firmino and Alisson have home qualifying games against Venezuela and Uruguay which means more long haul flights in the middle of an already congested calendar.
And the fact that the clubs themselves have to organise private jets to get their players home in a timely manner is also something that irritates Klopp.
“I am concerned not just about Covid but also that playing three games in nine days is massive,”.
“And if you would see our travel plans for bringing our players home, well...
“There is a lot that the clubs have to do for themselves because nobody is involved in that as well. So it is not my favourite time of the year at all.”
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