Coutinho Is Still Not Available To Play – Klopp

Jurgen Klopp says Philippe Coutinho will still not be available against Crystal Palace on Saturday with a back injury and claims the club’s medical department have reported no attitude concerns with the midfielder who wants to leave the club.

Coutinho handed in a transfer request last week after Liverpool, who still say the player is not for sale, rejected two offers from Barcelona.

The Brazil international did not travel with the squad for Tuesday’s Champions League playoff first leg at Hoffenheim, with Klopp saying in Germany the player “cannot play for Liverpool in this moment.”

“Phil is not available. He’s not in training so far,” Klopp told a news conference. “Nobody has told me anything different. It’s always how it is with injured players, there’s no real set time for when he’s back.

“I can have nothing to say about his attitude because since he got the back injury, he hasn’t been in training. When I asked the medical department how he’s doing, they had no complaints so that’s how it is. I’ve got nothing bad to say about this.”

“There’s no news from me because nobody told me any different since we spoke last time about this. Look, we are all not silly and we know it’s a very difficult situation. There just is nothing new to say and obviously there are different interests from different departments [people] and all that stuff.

“It’s not always easy for me to say the 100 percent truth, even when I don’t like to lie, but in this case, it’s exactly how I say. This is how it is in the moment and nothing else.”
“Unfortunately my English is not good enough to give 500 different answers on the same question,” Klopp said.

“You can obviously see that the whole market worldwide is quite difficult. A few teams are looking and we are still looking — but that’s what I do when I’m not on the pitch or not thinking about training or the next game. Of course, we think what we can do.

“But if the transfer window would have ended yesterday, we already would have a team which I like and which we can play football with. Of course, injuries here and there, and that’s not too cool. But still, in this moment, it’s a good team.

“The transfer window is a very important time — there’s no doubt about this — but it’s also really important what we do with the actual team.

“We will see what happens. I cannot change this answer. A few things can happen on both sides. Obviously, everything leads to Aug. 31. I can imagine it will be a busy day. If we are involved in this busy day, I don’t know. But we will see.”