Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp jokes that defeat to Southampton could 'kill him' after health scare
The Liverpool manager had a health scare earlier this week when he was admitted to hospital
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Your support makes all the difference.Jürgen Klopp has reminded his Liverpool players the defeat on Saturday could put his health at risk for the second time this week.
Klopp was forced to miss sessions at the club's training ground on Wednesday after informing medical staff that he felt unwell.
The Liverpool manager later admitted himself to hospital but doctors found no cause for serious concern and he resumed his duties at Melwood the following day.
Klopp is now fit again and well enough to be on the touchline when his side host Southampton at Anfield on Saturday, though he joked that a bad result could send him to mortuary.
“I am really completely fine, it is not that I have to go back in to hospital tomorrow,” he said, joking: “I told the players that the doctor said the only thing that can kill me is if we lose football games.
“No, I am completely fine. It was nothing. I went there and they said, ‘OK all good.’ For this they need a little bit of time, so you don’t go in, have your temperature taken and then go again. They have a lot of machines. But I knew from the first second that I had nothing.”
Klopp is not the only one at Anfield to have returned to full fitness this week, with Liverpool able to call upon Adam Lallana and captain Jordan Henderson after the midfielders both recovered from thigh injuries.
Sadio Mané is a doubt for the meeting with his former club after suffering a slight recurrence of a hamstring injury while away with Senegal last week and Dominic Solanke is not expected to start either, despite making his England debut in Tuesday's 0-0 friendly draw with Brazil.
Klopp was nevertheless delighted to see the 20-year-old summer signing from Chelsea win his first international cap and reassured him that he only needs “a little luck” in order to break into the Liverpool manager's first-team plans.
“Apart from his football skills, his character is absolutely outstanding. He is completely calm with the situation,” Klopp said of Solanke. “He is really involved, an important member of the squad. That is what he wanted. He wants to be closer. He can’t do it all by himself. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck.
“It hasn’t happened too often but I am really happy to have him here. He is doing so well and he will not be disappointed if he doesn’t start at the weekend. He doesn’t feel like 'roll out the red carpet', he is a smart lad and someone we will enjoy working with.”
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