Klopp fears postwc injury woes
Liverpool boss feels that over crowding calendar with new international tourneys will lead to player injuries
LONDON: Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp fears the gruelling demands of international football are putting players at such risk that “we have to collect their bones” during the coming season.
Klopp is preparing for the start of the new Premier League campaign without a number of Liverpool stars who are on holiday following international duty at the World Cup. But there is little time for players who featured in Russia to rest and then get back to peak fitness because the Premier League kicks off on August 10.
Adding to the problem is the presence of UEFA’S new Nations League, which replaces the usual rounds of international friendlies and begins on September 6.
“I don’t want to get too football political but if they don’t stop with these games — they are now making it the Nations Cup to make it more important —then all these players who played at the World Cup have to go there again,” Klopp said.
“We had four players in the (World Cup) semis, which is OK, we can deal with that. Tottenham had nine players in the semis. I have no clue how they will do it. That’s a big challenge. It’s a really tough thing to deal with and in the future we have to change it.
“They play the World Cup, then the Nations Cup, next summer is the final of the Nations Cup, which is really crazy. Everything is now so important in football and we have to collect their bones afterwards, more or less.”
‘VERY BAD’ PRE-SEASON WORRIES MOURINHO
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is worried by the absence of key players from the club’s pre-season training camp in the United States.
United are without several World Cup participants, including Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku among others.
“The pre-season is very bad, the positive thing of the pre-season is only for the young boys that have a fantastic opportunity to train with us,” Mourinho told reporters. “I’m worried because I’m not training (with everyone) and then I go to the Premier League without lots of players.”