Klopp feared virus would end title bid

Reds boss was concerned Covid-19 could have ended league hopes

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admits there was a moment when he feared the club would be denied the chance to win their first league title in 30 years because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Reds hold a 22-point lead over Manchester City and need just two more wins to guarantee a long-awaited first Premier League triumph and a first championship since 1990.

But soon after the season was suspended in March Klopp began to worry it would never happen.

“I didn’t think when we went to lockdown ‘Oh my god, that is our season, we are so close’, because it was important in that moment,” he said.

“I became worried in the moment when people started talking about ‘null and void’ this season because I was like ‘Wow’.

“I really felt it physically. That would have been really, really hard. We don’t expect to get it as a present so we didn’t want to have a points-per-game basis so we were really happy when it was decided we could play again.

“There were moments when some people brought it up from time to time for different reasons but when it was off the table I felt quite relieved.

“If they had done points per game and we couldn’t have played then we would have been champions but now we aren’t and we have to play for it and that is great, that is how it should be in sports.

“And now we go for it. We don’t think in our mind we are already there. It will be tough, tougher than tough, the next few weeks.

“But we will be what we have to not fine and we will see celebrate and how we celebrate but these things are only important in the moment when it has finally happened and not before.”

Klopp meanwhile has not ruled out Mohamed Salah or Andy Robertson of tomorrow’s Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, despite neither playing in a behind-closed-doors friendly last week.

Robertson has at least been pictured in training this week but Salah was not present in any of the images published by the club, although Klopp insists no-one is yet unavailable for the game.

Alisson Becker will return in goal having been out with a hip injury immediately prior to the suspension of the season.

Everton will be without several big names with Yerry Mina and Fabian Delph joining Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Theo Walcott on the sidelines.

Gbamin was close to a return from long-term injury before suffering an Achilles problem which will rule him out for a further four to five months, while Walcott is out for around four weeks after surgery on an abdominal problem.