KLOPP: ONLY BAD RESULTS WILL KILL ME
Klopp: The only thing that will kill me is losing games!
JURGEN KLOPP’S doctors have told him the only thing that will kill him is results!
The Liverpool boss was on fine form as he laughed off a major midweek health scare, by revealing the message he passed on to his team in a meeting before today’s clash with Southampton.
The German coach (above) was advised by club doctors to undergo medical tests, after feeling unwell following a return flight from South Africa. But Klopp had a message for Reds fans as he returned to work.
“I am really completely fine. I told the players the doctor said the only thing that can kill me is if we lose football games,” he said with a smile. “That’s it. It was nothing. It is not that someone should think I have to go back in to hospital tomorrow.” Klopp missed training on Wednesday, as he admitted himself to an NHS hospital in Liverpool on club doctors’ orders, where his presence created a furore... with the manager joking that it is not the place for a high-profile figure.
“I really have to thank a lot of people, not because it was anything that serious, but because they were that nice,” he said.
“Whatever people say about it, the NHS is not as bad as you think. The only problem is that you should not try to experience it as a public person. The whole world is talking about it.
“It was not a marketing thing by Liverpool! I came into the hospital and, when I passed the first few people, I saw a security man go into his walkie talkie, ‘Klopp’s in hospital! Did you see him?’”
He was back to oversee training on Thursday, and he insisted he is in perfect health, despite the scare. Klopp said: “I went there and they said, ‘OK, all good’.
“For this they need a little bit of time, they have a lot of machines. But I knew from the first second I had nothing – unfortunately I was the only one. Afterwards everybody knew it.”
The manager faces a very different problem for the weekend – how to get fit-again Philippe Coutinho and former Saint Adam Lallana into his side. Klopp added: “Adam is a fantastic player but we want to have him for the season.
“This is the moment the player wants to be back immediately, and I have to be the bad guy and say, ‘Not today, maybe tomorrow’.”
Another ex-southampton star Dejan Lovren could face his old side as fellow centre-back Joel Matip is a major doubt.