Jurgen Klopp Confirms Only Trent Alexander-Arnold Actually Had Covid Ahead Of Arsenal Postponement

Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Trent Alexander-Arnold was the only Liverpool player who actually had Covid for their Carabao Cup semi final with Arsenal, that was delayed last week.

Last week the Reds first leg of their tie against the Gunners was the latest game to be postponed in a recent spate of problems in football, thanks to Covid's latest variant.

The lack of transparency over which games are cancelled and why has led to annoyance amongst some fans, and they were confused after rumours of Liverpool being without any goalkeepers in mid week were succeeded by Caoimhin Kelleher playing against Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup.

How did kelleher have covid after playing chelsea but is back in time for this game? Adrian too. https://t.co/bggMYJEjCp

— Dan Koogs (@dankoogs) January 9, 2022

However it turns out that the rumours were only that, because Kelleher, and anyone else who played on Sunday, couldn't even had a false positive.

Speaking on Sunday, Klopp confirmed that only Alexander-Arnold actually had caught the virus from his squad but anyone who'd been falsely diagnosed by their test also wasn't available.

"This was the team we could line up with today and the boys did really well," the Champions League winning boss said after the game,

"We had last week a proper outbreak and it showed up that we had a lot of false positives but the rules are like they are so all these players who are false positives couldn't play.

"The only real positive came from Trent Alexander-Arnold and all the rest were false positives."

Liverpool were able to play against Shrewsbury with a bit of a depleted squad on Sunday and, despite going behind, went through to the fourth round to face Cardiff City.

The recovery from the issue means that Liverpool are free to face Arsenal this week, with the first leg on Thursday now at Anfield instead of the Emirates Stadium.

They will still of course be without Mohamed Salah, Naby Keita and Sadio Mane who are all at the African Cup of Nations, and could be missing until February.

Klopp could do with some back up in the forward positions and according to reports they are close to signing someone to relieve their issues.

Porto forward Luis Diaz is apparently on the verge of a £60 million move to Anfield.