Klopp tells Henderson not to return early from pre-season
Jurgen Klopp has told Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson to take a full summer’s break after requesting to return to training early.
The Telegraph reports that the England midfielder wanted to return to pre-season action earlier than he was scheduled too.
Klopp insists he has spoken to the player and told him to enjoy his time off to prevent fatigue later down the line.
It was a hard fight to convince him that he needed a holiday. I knew it would happen. On the phone I said ‘crazy’. Jordan needs a holiday so that means August 5 he will be back. Dejan (Lovren) had a party in Croatia and played a day later so he will be back on August 6. That would mean five days training after three weeks holiday.
Henderson is one of the last of Liverpool’s World Cup players due to return to pre-season training after helping England reach the third-place play-off in Russia.
He is not due back until the first week of August and is likely to miss the first game of the season because of his late arrival.
Klopp also confirmed that Trent Alexander-Arnold could return slightly earlier than Henderson after not featuring much in Russia.
With Trent I have a special agreement. He wanted to be in earlier as well. As he’s very young I said, ‘Okay, have two weeks holiday and then we’ll speak and see’. If you asked Trent he would be good to join us in two weeks. But I’m not sure I will do that. I want to have them desperately but the season is really long.