Jurgen Klopp says Darwin Nunez ruled himself out of a start against Tottenham Hotspur today.
Nunez was a surprise omission from the Liverpool starting line-up this afternoon. Having been in good form recently, fans will have expected the 24-year-old to start.
However, speaking pre-match to Sky Sports, Klopp admitted that Nunez retreating to the bench was not completely his decision.
“Darwin ruled himself out, he brought something from the international break,” said the manager. “A little bit of a bone thing around the knee, not massive.
“Yesterday in training he said ‘it’s not possible.’ We took him here overnight, it has improved so he’s ready to come from the bench, but not ready to start.”
Nunez rules himself out
Having been in really good form over the past few weeks, it’s disappointing that Darwin has been unable to give himself the chance to keep that going.
Throughout his time at Liverpool so far, this has been an unfortunate recurring theme for the Uruguayan.
At times he’s been absolutely brilliant, only to then be ruled out with niggling little injuries.
Thankfully, Nunez could still cause some damage today, having been named on the bench. But with Jurgen’s words in mind, you get the feeling he won’t be used unless absolutely necessary.
From a Liverpool point of view then, we maybe should be hoping that we don’t see Darwin today. That will probably mean that things are going well for the Reds in North London.
Nevertheless, the former Benfica man is a player who gets fans off their seats. It’s always great to see him on the pitch wreaking chaos.
With Cody Gakpo coming in for him, Liverpool are not short of quality despite Nunez being missing. Fingers crossed he heals up quickly