Jürgen Klopp to Miss Chelsea Match Following Positive Covid Test

For any Liverpool fans looking for good omens, either in the world of football or more broadly, 2022 looks to be getting off to a less than ideal start with news just a few hours into the new year that manager Jürgen Klopp had returned a positive test for Covid.

The Liverpool manager talked on Friday about the uncertainty surrounding the club as three players and a number of staff returned positive tests late last week, saying every day had begun to “feel like a lottery” arriving at the training grounds and waiting on test results.

On Friday, the final day of 2021, Klopp returned a negative test, held his press conference, and led his players in training. On Saturday, the first day of 2022, he returned a positive test. He will miss Sunday’s game against Chelsea and Pep Lijnders will take charge.

The hope now will be that the manager’s status as double-vaxxed and boosted will ensure a brief and mild case, though even in the best case scenario the expectation will be that Klopp will isolate through the first leg of the League Cup semi against Arsenal.

Given the spread of cases at the club, it’s also perhaps fair to wonder what the coming days will hold, though for the time being at least Sunday’s game against Chelsea is expected to go ahead as planned.