Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny has hit back at Jurgen Klopp over his claims regarding the injury of Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
Kelleher is yet to make a matchday squad this year for the Reds because of the injury, which Klopp is adamant occurred whilst on international duty over the summer.
The Liverpool boss has spoken about the topic on several occasions and stated last month via the Irish Independent:
“Caoimhin felt something after the international game and everybody, the medical department there, told him it’s fine and will be good after holiday,” Klopp said.
The Liverpool boss also said at a later date: “Caoimh, I heard the Irish manager didn’t like it [Klopp’s previous comments], or however you gave him the information.
“However, for us it’s like this: he got injured at Ireland and whoever was responsible for it in this moment did not pick it up.”
How has the Ireland manager responded?
This little war of words has now developed further, with Ireland manager Stephen Kenny continuing to laugh off Klopp’s claims.
When speaking about his latest international squad, Kenny stated on the Kelleher issue via 90min:
“[Dr Alyn Byrne, team doctor] has a reputation from being involved in 200 internationals. They have medical notes, extensive notes, on every injury and we have no notes on Caoimhin from that camp,” Kenny said. “They write everything down and there’s no medical notes, so it’s interesting.
“If Caoimhin did tweak something, we weren’t aware of it. He trained with Liverpool when he went back for pre-season and got injured.”
As this back and forth has dragged on for months, Kenny also did his best to cool tensions between himself and Klopp.
“We’re fine,” The Ireland boss said.
“We’ve got great respect for Liverpool. I’m sure it’s not an issue and we’ll all move on.”