Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s knee injury left Jürgen Klopp speechless, but the boss has no doubt that Liverpool’s No.21 will respond positively to his season-ending setback.

Klopp was forced to replace Oxlade-Chamberlain inside the opening 20 minutes of Tuesday’s 5-2 Champions League semi-final first-leg victory over AS Roma after the midfielder was hurt while making a tackle on Aleksandar Kolarov.

Scans on Wednesday confirmed that the England international sustained ligament damage that will preclude him from playing any further part in the Reds’ campaign and the upcoming World Cup in Russia.

“I have no words for that,” Klopp said on Friday, after being asked to sum up his sense of frustration with Oxlade-Chamberlain’s misfortune.

“I cannot believe that this wonderful player, person, boy, guy, whatever, in such a positive situation, helping the team, having a clear, clear challenge, something like this happens. I really have no words for that.

“When I saw it back I thought ‘wow’. It’s just a shame, it’s not fair, to be honest. But that’s how life is sometimes and, how do we say it, if you get a lemon you make lemonade of it and that’s what we have to do. 

“That’s what Alex is doing, he’s an absolute positive person and he will be back. I told him already that we will wait for him like a good wife, when a man is in prison.”

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