Liverpool have confirmed that Joel Matip will miss the rest of the season.
The Cameroonian, 29, will not appear for the Reds until the 2021/22 campaign after damaging his ankle ligaments during the 3-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
Klopp revealed to Liverpool's official website: “Unfortunately, we found out now after everybody looked at it that Joel will be out for the rest of the season.
Liverpool's defensive woes
“But he will be ready for the start of the next pre-season and finally everything will be sorted.”
The news comes as a massive blow to the Premier League champions who have already lost Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez to serious injuries in the centre-back position this season.
In fact, such is the chaos in Liverpool's defence that the club were forced to make two Deadline Day moves, bringing in Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak from Preston North End and Schalke respectively.
Bad luck for Matip
Kopites will be keeping their fingers crossed that the new arrivals stay fit for the remainder of the season with Klopp going onto acknowledge the degree of Matip's injury struggles across 2020/21.
The Liverpool boss praised Matip for battling through injuries and a lack of fitness at times during his Reds career, noting: “In the end, we have to admit that he probably did that.
“The situation is just, the season started and Joel was injured when the season started, unfortunately. We should not forget that at Schalke when he was there he played pretty much all the time completely through, he never had something.
“Then he was unlucky with a Koulibaly challenge against Napoli in the last second, in the Everton game kind of things, a little bit with the foot here and there.
"If something started and then the situation is like our situation – that nobody can really wait because of our situation with Virgil out and Joe out – we always had to try to find the first moment when he is able to play again.
“It was really unlucky because it was a brilliant challenge he made actually, he saved our life in that moment in the Tottenham game when he won the challenge against Son.
“But he injured his ankle and played the game on and now is out for the season, so you can imagine how much he tried to stay on the pitch and tried to help us.
“We will wait for him. He has now the rest of this season, then the summer, then the pre-season to get ready again and he will be ready again.”
Everyone here at GIVEMESPORT wishes Matip the best in his recovery from injury.