October 15, (THEWILL) – Alisson and Fabinho will miss Liverpool’s Premier League match against Watford on Saturday, according to team manager Jurgen Klopp.
Fabinho started Brazil’s 4-1 victory over Uruguay on Thursday, while his club-mate sat on the bench.
The chances of either player being available for the Saturday lunchtime kickoff were always slim as THEWILL reported, but Klopp confirmed their absences in his pre-match press conference.
Instead of playing, the pair will fly straight to Madrid to prepare for Liverpool’s Champions League match against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday evening.
Klopp said: “The last game they played in a red list country was Colombia so next Thursday it will be 10 days and then they can fly back [from Madrid to UK]. They could have flown into England but it would have meant they had to isolate from their families.”
Curtis Jones, who was injured while on international duty with England Under-21s, is also expected to miss the game. The injury happened during the Young Lions’ 1-0 win over Andorra, a game that his club manager did not think was a good use of his time.
“When we talk about federations, Curtis Jones came back from England Under-21s injured,” Klopp began to vent. “Great! It’s hard to get in touch with them. They played Andorra, really important he played there…”
Klopp’s dissatisfaction did not end there. He also spoke about Newcastle’s tumultuous Saudi-backed takeover, which has caused a furore in the Premier League since the news broke.
“I was waiting for some official statement about it from Richard Masters or someone else as there are obviously concerns over human rights issues. It didn’t happen in the first place,” he said.
“It means there is a new superpower. Money can’t buy everything but over time they have enough money to make some wrong decisions and then make right decisions. The Premier League obviously thought ‘let’s give it a go’. It’s now the third club owned by a country.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
