Jurgen Klopp on Tuesday welcomed the news that Liverpool will start work at Melwood again this week as part of phase one of the Premier League’s Return to Training protocol.
The league announced Monday that all 20 clubs had unanimously voted in favour of returning to small group training this week, while maintaining social distancing.
The Reds voluntarily suspended activity at Melwood on March 13 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but will begin staggered sessions consisting of a handful of players on Wednesday.
The division described the news as “the first step towards restarting the Premier League, when safe to do so” in its statement.
Speaking exclusively to Liverpoolfc.com, Klopp detailed what kind of work his players will be doing and how Melwood has been set up to adhere to medical protocols.
Jürgen Klopp on…
? Reaction to training return
? The process to get to this point
? What those first sessions look like
? How Melwood is set upA detailed catch up with the boss. Full video and transcript now available ⬇️
— Liverpool FC (at ?) (@LFC) May 19, 2020
“I was over the moon, I would say. I couldn’t wait for a while now, so I am really happy that we are able to do this again — going back to Melwood, having small group training and stuff like this,” Klopp said. “It will be intense, for the coaches especially because a lot of players in small groups means a lot of sessions, but we’ve had enough time to rest so we will be fine. Can’t wait. We had to do the testing this week — the COVID testing — and we have to still wait for the results. If they are all negative — which would be positive — then we can start with the full group, pretty much. It’s a great day when they finally decided to do so, I always said we don’t want to rush anything, but I don’t think it is rushed. It is for the first step, for this kind of social distancing training and we have five players. Everybody knows how big a football pitch is and there will probably be four players and a goalkeeper, or five players and a goalkeeper in a separate group on different days, that’s possible as well but then you can imagine how much space they have to do what they have to do. … ”
