Klopp confirms ‘really unfortunate’ knee injury for Oxlade-Chamberlain

Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will leave the Reds’ training camp early after picking up a knock to his knee.

Jurgen Klopp‘s men are in Austria preparing for the defence of their Premier League title, which begins in September.

Before that, however, Liverpool face Arsenal in the Community Shield next Saturday. The Anfield club will be looking to clinch the trophy after missing out to Manchester City last summer.

However, Klopp has confirmed that Oxlade-Chamberlain will not feature in the Wembley clash after injuring his knee.

Klopp told Liverpool’s official website of the injury: “Really unfortunate. An unfortunate situation as well; it was a challenge [in training].

“It looks like it is very similar to what [Jordan Henderson] had, which keeps him out for we don’t know for sure exactly how long, but for sure this pre-season he will not make a game, Arsenal for sure not and then we will see.

“The next game is probably two weeks later, but I don’t know.

“We have to wait but it is far away from being perfect, of course. It is really hard for him and hard for us, but it is not to change.”

The injury is the second knee problem Oxlade-Chamberlain has suffered at Liverpool. In May 2018, a serious cruciate ligament problem ruled him out for a number of months.

KLOPP ALLAYS QUARANTINE FEARS

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There were fears this week that the rest of the Liverpool camp would have to join Oxlade-Chamberlain in heading back to Melwood, after the UK added Austria to its list of countries from which returnees will have to quarantine.

However, Klopp also confirmed that, due to his players and staff being in a ‘bubble’, they will remain in the country.

The German manager said: “A training camp is for us very, very important to focus completely on the preparation. We train a lot, apart from that we speak a lot and we eat the right things, sleep enough and all that stuff, so that’s why we wanted to do it.

“And then obviously the world is still in a difficult place in the moment, in Europe as well, so we had to find a solution for the moment when France came on the list. We found that solution.

“Austria – together with Germany, I would say – in that moment had the best numbers, is pretty experienced in training camps in the summer, so we found this hotel here and they did an incredible job and now we are here in the safe place.

“We are in our own bubble, do nothing to bring anybody or ourselves in danger and just focus on football. In a couple of days, four or five days, we will back in England and finish the preparation and play first really, really important game against Arsenal. So that’s it.”

Liverpool play Stuttgart on Saturday and RB Salzburg in friendlies on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively.