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Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp: ‘When I saw NHS staff singing You’ll Never Walk Alone, I started crying immediately’

German and his players also thanked healthcare workers in a video they released on Thursday

Alex Pattle
Friday 27 March 2020 13:26 GMT
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Coronavirus: How has sport been affected?

Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp has revealed how he was overcome with emotion after seeing a recent video of NHS staff singing the club’s anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.

On Thursday, Klopp and players and staff from Liverpool’s men’s and women’s teams released their own video, in which they thanked healthcare staff around the world for their efforts in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

And on Friday, the German told the club’s official website about his emotional reaction to first seeing NHS staff using Liverpool’s anthem as a message of support.

“My English is not good enough to say... It’s extraordinary, it’s great.

“I think yesterday I was sent a video of people in the hospital just outside the intensive care area, and when they started singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, I started crying immediately. It’s unbelievable.

“But it shows everything, these people not only work, but they have such a good spirit. They are used to helping other people. We need to get used to it because usually we have our own problems and stuff. But it’s their job, they do it day in and day out.

“They bring themselves, if you want, in danger because they help ill, sick and seriously handicapped people, so I couldn’t admire them more and appreciate it more, I really couldn’t.”

Klopp also shared details of his side’s reaction as the outbreak worsened on the week of Liverpool’s Champions League exit to Atletico Madrid at Anfield.

“We played the Bournemouth game on Saturday, we won it, then Sunday City lost, so the information for us was ‘two wins to go’. But then on Monday morning, I woke up and heard about the situation in Madrid, that they would close the schools and universities from Wednesday, so it was really strange to prepare for that game, to be honest.

“I usually don’t struggle with things around me, I can build barriers right and left when I prepare for a game, but in that moment it was really difficult.

“Wednesday we had the game [against Atletico Madrid], I loved the game, I loved what I saw from the boys, it was a really, really good performance other than the result – we didn’t score enough, we conceded too many, that’s all clear, but between these two main pieces of information it was a brilliant game.

“Thursday [we were] off and then Friday when we arrived it was already clear this is not a session. Yes, we trained, but it was more of a meeting. We had a lot of things to talk about, a lot of things to think about, things I never thought before in my life about.

Jurgen Klopp with Liverpool defender Andy Robertson 

“Nobody knew exactly – and nobody knows exactly – how it will go on, so the only way we could do was to organise it as good as possible for the boys and make sure everything is sorted as much as we can sort it in our little space, in the little area where we are responsible, really. That’s what we did in a very short time, then we sent the boys home, went home ourselves and here we are still.”

Klopp also admitted it has been difficult not seeing his players and staff in recent weeks.

“I have to say, not only the backroom staff, I miss everybody. I just miss everybody. Usually you are somewhere and that’s not a moment where you miss the backroom staff or your colleagues. But at the moment, really desperately.

“We miss each other, we really like working together. We have a lot of contact with WhatsApp groups and phone calls, FaceTime, whatever. So we see each other a lot, but not like we want to or like we are used to.”

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