Liverpool skipper Henderson ruled out for season, says Klopp
LONDON: Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has been ruled out of the rest of the Premier League champions’ campaign ater the midfielder sustained a knee injury in their midweek win at Brighton & Hove Albion, manager Juergen Klopp said on Friday.
Klopp was forced to withdraw Henderson 10 minutes from fulltime in the 3-1 win ater a collision with Yves Bissouma but the German said the 30-year-old does not require surgery.
“It is the best possible of the bad news. He does not need surgery,” Klopp told reporters in a virtual news conference. “He will not play again this season. I’m prety positive he will be with us for the new season, he is a quick healer.
“We all felt for him, awful moment. We knew immediately. Hendo is an animal he fights for everything. He deals well with pain but in this moment, he knew something had happened. It was a complete mood killer.
“The boys were happy with the result but then the boys realised Hendo was hurt. No surgery needed is the good news. He will lit the trophy, he deserves to lit the trophy.”
The midfielder tweeted: “My rehabilitation will start immediately and I’ll be working hard to be back to full fitness in just a mater of weeks in order to be fully ready for the start of the new season.
“Of course it’s not the way I’d have preferred to have finished the season on a personal level but it’s been an incredible campaign for us so far as a team and as a club and I’ll be doing everything I can to support the boys for the final games from the sidelines.”
Liverpool, who are on 92 points with four games remaining, are on course to break Manchester City’s record haul of 100 points and face Burnley on Saturday. Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah is in the running for the Golden Boot for the league’s top scorer again ater winning the award last season, but the Egyptian is three goals behind Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy who has 22.
Klopp hailed Salah’s heroics ater he was involved in all three goals at Brighton but dismissed talk of Liverpool’s players deliberately passing the ball for him to score and catch up with Vardy.
“I saw the replays back and Bobby (Roberto Firmino) was not in the best position for the shot and Mo was in a beter place,” Klopp said. “I don’t think he did it for the Golden Boot. You cannot have that mindset, we all help.
“They all want to score goals, Bobby wants to score goals. That’s the mindset that we need.”