Jurgen Klopp admits Luis Diaz news made build-up to Forest game 'most difficult I've had'

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp described the build-up to Sunday's Premier League win over Nottingham Forest “the most difficult I've ever had in my life”.

Forward Luis Diaz returned home to Colombia ahead of the 3-0 victory at Anfield after it emerged that his parents had been kidnapped by armed men in South America.

The player's mother, Cilenis Marulanda, was found in Barrancas on Saturday but there is a major military and police search under way for his father Luis Manuel Diaz, who remains missing.

“The game preparation was the most difficult I've ever had in my life. I didn't expect that, I wasn't prepared for it,” said Klopp.

“I don't want to make the game bigger than it was, but definitely, we tried to help Luis with the fight we put in because obviously we want to help and we cannot really help.

“So the only thing we can do is fight for him and that's what the boys did.”

Liverpool secured their fifth straight home Premier League win to move three points behind leaders Tottenham but Klopp admitted that the importance of football felt secondary after the shocking news.

“How can you make a football game really important on a day like this? It's really difficult. I've never struggled with that in my life.

“We heard late last night about it. We spoke to Luis, he wanted to go home … Then we got the news with his mum, which is fantastic, and since then nothing really.

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