THE PUBLIC DISCREPANCY between Jurgen Klopp and Stephen Kenny on the provenance of Caoimhin Kelleher remains, with the Liverpool manager re-asserting his belief that his back-up goalkeeper was injured on international duty in June. 

Kelleher remains sidelined having missed Liverpool’s pre-season games due to injury, with Klopp initially stating the injury was suffered on international duty during the Nations League window in June and went undiagnosed by the Irish staff. 

“Caoimh felt something after the international game and everybody, the medical department there, told him it’s fine and will be good after holiday”, said Klopp last month. The injury has kept Kelleher sidelined for longer than Liverpool initially expected. 

When that was put to Kenny at a media event at an earlier this month, the Irish manager said Klopp’s comments “caught us by surprise.”

“I actually wasn’t aware that he was injured [while in camp in June], to be honest with you. If he had of been injured, he would have been out of training or not training. I’d have comfortably played Mark Travers because he really excelled in the training camp and it looks like he has come up a notch again. If Caoimhin wasn’t right, I would have selected Mark with full confidence. That was a surprise to me to see that.” 

Klopp raised the issue again ahead of tonight’s game with Manchester United, with Kelleher among his many injury absentees. 

“When you have a lot of injuries, as a manager you have to ask first yourself what went wrong, stuff like this. Caoimh, I heard the Irish manager didn’t like it, or however you gave him the information.

“However, for us it’s like this – he got injured at Ireland and whoever was responsible for it in this moment did not pick it up.”