Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp hit by international break chaos
Premier League
By
Mirror
| Oct 10, 2018
Liverpool's players will be counting up the air miles as they head off on international duty, with 19 of Jurgen Klopp's stars heading off on their travels.
And of the 19, it is the African trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita who face the longest journeys, with the stars facing round trips totalling over 50,000km between them, and that's just within Africa.
All three are playing in double-header Africa Nations Cup qualifiers, with Salah travelling pretty much the length of the continent and back again with a 17,500km round trip from Egypt to Swaziland and back.
Mane's Senegal host Sudan before facing them in Khartoum three days later, a round trip of 13,000km, while Keita will captain Guinea at home to Rwanda on Friday night before going to Rigali and back to complete 14,000km journey.
All three face their second match of the double-header on Tuesday, October 16, meaning that they should be back in plenty of time for Liverpool's next Premier League clash at Huddersfield a week on Saturday.
Elsewhere in the squad, the club's three Brazilians Roberto Firmino, Alisson and Fabinho play Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Friday and then Argentina in Jeddah on Tuesday.
In previous international breaks, the Reds have put on a private jet to get their South American stars home quicker, although the fact that this game takes place earlier in the week than usual means they may not have to.
Jordan Henderson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez and with the England squad that go to Croatia and Spain, and they'll face clubmate Dejan Lovren in that first game in Rijeka. Lovren's Croatia then face Jordan in the same venue next Monday.
With the Netherlands, Virgil van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum host Germany and then make the short trip to Belgium, where they'll bump into Simon Mignolet, who will be part of the squad to host Xherdan Shaqiri's Switzerland on Friday. The Swiss then go to Iceland on Monday.
Andy Robertson will be home earlier than most as he'll captain Scotland away at Israel this week and then at home to Portugal on Sunday.
Among the club's younger players, Dominic Solanke and Curtis Jones will represent England's under-21s and under-18s respectively, while Rafael Camacho is with Portugal's under-20s and Polish goalkeeper Kamil Grabara has linked up with his nation's under-21s.