Jurgen Klopp has been told to “pull himself together” after ruling Naby Keita out of the African Cup of Nations by the president of the Guinea FA, who also confirmed the midfielder will be a part of the summer tournament.
The 24-year-old ruptured his adductor muscle in the 3-0 defeat at Barcelona in midweek and Klopp was quick to rule him out for two months, much to the displeasure of Antonio Souare.
He told Football Factory Radio et TV, as cited by the Daily Mail:
The adductors are two-three weeks of unavailability. [Jurgen Klopp] has to pull himself together and let the doctors do their job. Naby Keita belongs to a country before belonging to Liverpool. I must remind the Liverpool coaches of the rules if they do not know. It’s hasty and pretentious to make statements like this. What we know is that Naby Keita will play the CAN 2019.
The African Cup of Nations 2019 kicks off in Egypt on June 21 and takes place through to mid-July.
It’s understandable Klopp would prefer ‘Baby Keith’ to miss the tournament as he looks to build on his best season at Anfield so far, despite potentially finishing with no silverware.
Keita was coming into form before his unfortunate injury at the Nou Camp, scoring three goals in his last five appearances.
It will be interesting to see if the dynamic midfielder does recover in time to represent his nation this summer, but I doubt many Liverpool fans will be complaining if he doesn’t.
