Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has played down fears there is anything to worry about after summer signing Alexis Mac Allister was withdrawn unexpectedly during Wednesday’s 4-3 pre-season defeat to Bayern Munich in Singapore.
Mac Allister did not return for the second half after taking a knock to his knee before the interval. Joel Matip and Diogo Jota were the only other Liverpool players to come off at half-time, with Klopp not opting for the mass changes more commonly seen in early pre-season.
The Reds invested an initial £35m that could rise to £55m to sign the 2022 World Cup winner from Brighton in June, so his sudden absence was of concern to fans less than two weeks before the opening Premier League game away at Chelsea.
But Klopp didn’t appear to be worried when he spoke after the game, even suggesting that it would have been possible for Mac Allister to play on had there been more at stake.
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“Knee on knee,” the boss explained at a post-match press conference.
“He could have played on. Firstly I got the information that it’s too painful, so that was then clear that we will change. There’s no need to push him through.
“When I spoke afterwards, he said, ‘No, no, I would have been fine.’ But we didn’t want to take any risks. It’s just knee on knee, bruise, that’s it. It was fine.”
Liverpool initially led 2-0 in the game thanks to first half goals from Cody Gakpo and new full-time captain Virgil van Dijk. Bayern had managed to bring it back to 2-2 by half-time, only for Luis Diaz to re-establish a lead with a quarter of the game left. But further goals from Bayern’s Josip Stanisic and Fran Kratzig turned it around for the German champions in the closing stages.
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