Football missed chance to address ´crazy´ World Cup timing, says Klopp

Jurgen Klopp believes the problems arising from a “crazy” mid-season World Cup should have been addressed long ago amid a swathe of injuries affecting big-name players.

Debates around the scheduling of the tournament, which begins when hosts Qatar face Ecuador on November 20, have intensified after several players’ hopes of featuring were thrown into doubt.

England trio Kyle Walker, Reece James and Ben Chilwell are fighting to be fit for the tournament, while South Korea’s Son Heung-min is also a doubt after suffering a fracture around his left eye in Tottenham’s Champions League win at Marseille on Tuesday.

Liverpool great Jamie Carragher responded to that injury by calling the World Cup’s timing an “absolute disgrace”, but Klopp says football missed the chance to challenge it.

Asked about the situation ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League meeting with Spurs, Klopp interjected: “I hate this subject. These problems were so clear, so clear.

“Nobody mentioned it once until three, four weeks before the World Cup, when all of a sudden a player gets injured and we think, ‘Oh, he cannot play the World Cup’.

Wishing you all the best in your recovery, Sonny

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 2, 2022

“This specific problem that players who were injured late in the season cannot play the World Cup is not new. After a long season, it happens everywhere in the world.

“But now, starting the World Cup a week after the last game, that’s a bigger risk. Crazy.

“Nobody cares about us, how we deal with it. You ask me a question as if I can give you all the answers; what do you think I should do? Ask the players before Southampton or before Derby [County]: ‘Really? [Do you] want to play?’

“We are all guilty – you more than I am guilty – for letting it happen, for letting it happen in the first place.

“Now it’s happened, and now we have this situation, and that’s it. For the players who get injured and cannot play, it’s a disaster. But how can we change that?”