Liverpool’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders has become the latest positive Covid-19 case at the club, throwing their Carabao Cup semi-final at Arsenal into further doubt.
With manager Jurgen Klopp and three players – Alisson Becker, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino – already isolating, Lijnders, who took charge of the team for Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Chelsea, recorded a positive test late on Tuesday night.
That was after Liverpool had made a submission to the EFL to postpone Thursday’s first-leg clash at the Emirates in the wake of further positive cases among the squad and other player availability issues linked to illness and injury.
We can confirm Pepijn Lijnders has returned a suspected positive test for COVID-19, further impacting our preparations for Thursday’s Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal.
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 5, 2022
The club have cancelled their pre-match press conference, at which Lijnders was due to speak, and have no plans to rearrange it.
Liverpool are also missing Thiago Alcantara, Takumi Minamino, Nat Phillips and Harvey Elliott through injury, while Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita are now at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.