Liverpool trio Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino and Joel Matip ruled out of Chelsea Premier League clash with Covid-19

The news of the latest Liverpool cases comes off the back of news of the absence of manager Jurgen Klopp, with assistant Pep Lijnders set to lead the team out at Stamford Bridge. The third-placed Reds travel to Stamford Bridge one point and one place behind their opponents in the Premier League table.

Liverpool will be without Alisson Becker, Roberto Firmino and Joel Matip for their trip to Chelsea after all three players returned suspected positive tests for Covid-19.

The Reds were already set to face their title rivals at Stamford Bridge without Jurgen Klopp who also returned a suspected positive test 24 hours earlier.

Assistant manager Pep Lijnders will instead be in the dugout for the visitors.

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Liverpool have had a number of cases among their squad and staff with Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Curtis Jones among those who previously returned suspected positive tests in December.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Klopp revealed the scale of the problem at the Anfield club.

“We never had this kind of proper outbreak where 10, 15, 20 players had it, for us it’s more, every day another one,” he claimed.

“Stuff happens now more and more often, so as I said before, it feels like a lottery in the morning when you stand there and you wait for the result.

“It was now pretty much day by day always one case – today another one.”

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Video credit: SNTV

The third-placed Reds travel to Stamford Bridge one point and one place behind their opponents in the Premier League table.

Liverpool team to face Chelsea: Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Tsimikas, Fabinho, Henderson, Milner, Mane, Salah, Jota.

Subs: Adrian, Pitaluga, Keita, Gomez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jones, Beck, Williams, Morton.

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