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Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool must be ‘first priority’ for players in club vs country quarantine decisions

 (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
(Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Jurgen Klopp has told his Liverpool players that the club must be the “first priority” when it comes to difficult decisions over quarantine for the next international break.

Under current coronavirus guidelines, arrivals from red-list travel-ban countries are subject to 10 days’ hotel confinement, which would apply to the likes of Brazilians Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino and Fabinho and Portugal forward Diogo Jota.

Due to the special circumstances, Fifa has given clubs dispensation to prevent players who may be affected by the regulations from joining up with their countries - and Klopp fully intends to apply it.

The Liverpool boss said: “I think all the clubs agree that with the same problems we cannot just let the boys go and then sort the situation when they come back by placing our players in a 10-day quarantine in a hotel, it is just not possible.

“I understand the needs of the different FAs but this is a time where we cannot make everyone happy and we have to admit the players are paid by the clubs so it means we have to be first priority.

Klopp: ‘We cannot make everyone happy’Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Klopp: ‘We cannot make everyone happy’Liverpool FC via Getty Images

“The whole situation is similar to the Champions League in terms of where we play and you have to wait until the last second pretty much, because people need time to make decisions and we don’t think too much about it as we cannot be influential in it.

“We just deal with what other people decided so we got kind of used to it, but I think everyone agrees we cannot let the players go and play for their country and come back and quarantine for 10 days in a hotel, that is not how we can do it.”

Additional reporting by PA.