Liverpool to continue pre-season training camp in Austria
Jürgen Klopp has confirmed Liverpool will continue with their pre-season training camp in Austria as planned, despite the country being set to be added to the United Kingdom’s quarantine list.
From 4am BST on Saturday, persons entering the UK from Austria - as well as Croatia and Trinidad and Tobago - will be required to self-isolate for 14 days due to the rising COVID-19 infection rate.
However, the Reds will not be affected by the ruling having successfully applied for exemption by the Football Association as they have friendly matches lined up against Stuttgart and Salzburg.
Klopp explained to Liverpoolfc.com: “So, wherever we would be in the moment – if we would be in England or anywhere else or here in Austria – we would do absolutely everything possible to make sure that we create a safe place.
“This is our first concern obviously because we could have stayed in England, that wouldn't have changed the situation at all for us, just the big difference for us for the training camp is we have only a short period to prepare. So a training camp makes complete sense for us.
VIDEO: Klopp confirms LFC will complete training camp in Austria
“Since we are here we trained, apart from two days, every day twice, which makes it really intense. We could do that at home but then the boys have to drive home, have to go there. It's just from a training point of view, it makes no sense that you put an extra intensity just at lunchtime and say, 'Wherever you want to go, you can go, but see you at four o'clock or whatever.'
“A training camp is for us very, very important to focus completely on the preparation. We train a lot, apart from that we speak a lot and we eat the right things, sleep enough and all that stuff, so that's why we wanted to do it.
“And then obviously the world is still in a difficult place in the moment, in Europe as well, so we had to find a solution for the moment when France came on the list. We found that solution.
“Austria – together with Germany, I would say – in that moment had the best numbers, is pretty experienced in training camps in the summer, so we found this hotel here and they did an incredible job and now we are here in the safe place.
“We are in our own bubble, do nothing to bring anybody or ourselves in danger and just focus on football. In a couple of days, four or five days, we will back in England and finish the preparation and play a first really, really important game against Arsenal. So that's it.”
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