Jurgen Klopp is heartbroken for Virgil van Dijk but has explained how he will support the Dutchman during his time on the sidelines.
Liverpool’s no.4 and the world’s best centre-back will now miss the 2020/21 season with an ACL injury to his knee – following the disgusting challenge by Jordan Pickford that ludicrously went unpunished on Saturday in the Merseyside Derby.
It still makes us incredibly angry, in truth, but at least the manager is speaking with composure in regards to the avoidable and horrible situation.
“It’s always the same, players love to be rather on their own in the moment and to deal in the first moment with it. I am long enough in the business to know that. I was injured myself, I had exactly the same injury if I’m right and it’s not then that you are then pretty chatty,” he told the official website.
“It all will start but we are in contact, of course, we are in contact. We are there for him, he knows that and we will wait for him like a good wife is waiting when the husband is in jail and will do, meanwhile, all what we can do to make it as easy for him as possible.”
We remember Klopp said the same thing about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, when the midfielder did his ACL, actually.
Ox never came back the same player, but Virg is a different kind of footballer and a different kind of animal.
We hope as a centre-back, someone who has to sprint less and uses power more than agility, his football body will be less affected long-term.
It’s going to be a long wait, but as fans it’s our job to back the team to cope without him. Perhaps in January we can sign a new centre-back, but until then, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez need to perform like Kings.