The Qatar World Cup’s list of absentees continues to grow as managers and players are calling out the Football Hierarchy to protect the players. The likes of Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante, Timo Werner and Diogo Jota have already been ruled out through injury, while others such as Son Heung-min, Romelu Lukaku, Raphael Varane, Ben Chilwell and Reece James are facing a race against time to be fit.
Klopp on World Cup:
Klopp has previously stated his frustration at FIFA’s management of players and continues to protest against the World Cup. Klopp said: “I hate this subject! These problems were so clear, they were so clear, and nobody mentioned it one time until three or four weeks before the World Cup. And now all of a sudden players get injured and you say ‘he cannot play the World Cup, wow!’”.
“This situation, players getting injured late in the season and missing 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 is a bigger risk. Crazy.”
“Nobody cares about us and how we deal with it. You ask me the question now. What do you think I should do? Should I ask the players before Southampton or Derby, ‘do you really want to play?’ We are all guilty, and you more than I am, for letting it happen in the first place. And now it happens and that is it, we have to go along with it and the players who get injured and cannot play it is a disaster, but how can we change that?”
The opening World Cup game, between Qatar on Ecuador, takes place on November 20. The Premier League clubs still have 3 games to play before the World Cup.
