Jurgen Klopp has confirmed Darwin Nunez was substituted as a precautionary measure because of injury during Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over West Ham United on Wednesday night.
The Uruguayan scored his first Anfield goal for the Reds in the first half as he headed home Kostas Tsimikas’ cross, while he was also denied by the woodwork and Lukasz Fabianski as he caused the Hammers problems throughout. However, despite his impressive display, he was withdrawn before the hour-mark along with Fabio Carvalho and Thiago Alcantara as the German introduced Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones and Fabinho.
Speaking after the match, Klopp revealed the striker had felt his muscle at half-time and was withdrawn early to prevent a possible injury as he explained his reasoning behind each of his substitutions against West Ham.
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“He felt a little bit of muscle at half-time but it's all fine,” Klopp told reporters. “After five minutes, I was just too concerned about the long sprints for him when he stretched his leg.
“I thought, ‘Come on, we cannot take that risk.’ That’s why we changed. I think we caught him in the right moment.
“But then we immediately feel it because West Ham are a set-piece team as well. We needed to make sure we had enough players to withstand that so that’s why the other two changes came as well. Early changes, that’s fine.
“In the end when we changed another two times, we controlled it again. Milly was still flying from last Sunday. We brought it over the line.
“It’s a Premier League game. I can’t remember an easy game in all seven years and that was for sure not easy but we played well enough. In moments really good, in the end well enough to deserve three points.”
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