Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will miss his side's first Premier League match of the new year after testing positive for COVID-19.
The Reds are set to travel to Chelsea on Sunday, but will be without their manager, who is the latest casualty of the COVID outbreak currently sweeping the club.
Klopp reported mild symptoms ahead of the fixture and is now isolating, the club confirmed on Saturday.
Assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders will therefore lead the team for the 4.30pm kick-off at Stamford Bridge.
Testing of the entire first-team set-up has revealed no further positive cases within the playing squad in addition to the three confirmed by Klopp on Friday.
Three backroom staff members have returned suspected positive results, however.
Liverpool's COVID issues
Liverpool had reported three positive cases in their playing squad on Friday, however Klopp could not confirm the names of the players concerned.
In a media briefing on New Year's Eve, the German manager addressed the possibility of a postponement. “Not yet, but we don’t know," Klopp said.
“We never had this kind of proper outbreak where 10, 15, 20 players had it, for us it’s more every day another one.
"Staff 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.
“We have to wait, the boys are not even in yet, so we have to wait.
"In this moment, probably not but we don’t know how it will look in a few hours.”
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