Xherdan Shaqiri has been left at home for Liverpoo l’s Champions League trip to Serbia to face Red Star Belgrade.
The 27-year-old, of Kosovar-Albanian descent, angered Serbian fans with his ‘Albanian Eagle’ celebration and boots featuring the Kosovo flag at the World Cup and a decision has been taken to leave him behind in an attempt to reduce local hostilities.
Shaqiri was born in the former Yugoslav city of Gjilan which is now part of Kosovo, a state Serbia still refuses to recognise despite its declaration of independence in 2008.
For that reason Klopp said a pragmatic decision was taken to leave the player at home to allow the focus to remain on football.
"I constantly have to make decisions that I never expected before. I was confronted with that and that is the decision. That is all," he said.
"Absolutely not aware of any security issues or whatever. The only thing that I can say about it was that it was common sense. It was common sense to just make the decision, not to force anything.
"We come here wanting to play football. If he came here now and was involved then all the questions would be about him. That makes no sense.
"We have to concentrate on football. We have to focus on football. That’s what we want to do and that is why I made that decision."
Defender Dejan Lovren (muscle) and Naby Keita (hamstring) return to the squad but fellow midfielder Jordan Henderson has remained on Merseyside for extra training sessions as he finalises his recovery from a hamstring problem.
As Group C leaders, with Napoli and Paris St Germain playing each other, Liverpool could take a big step towards qualification with a win against Red Star, whom they took apart 4-0 at Anfield.
They currently lead the Italians by a point and the Parisians by two.
"It would help massively, of course. That is how it is. I don’t think about the other game but it is obvious they play against each other so they both can’t get three points," he said.
"If we could win here tomorrow it would give us a bit of control but only until the next game because everything is open again.
"Even if Paris loses, they can still get 10 points by winning the two games and the last one is here. That could be possible, at least.
"It is really important you focus on the job ahead of you because it is so difficult here, so different."
Predicted XI: Alisson, Gomez, Van Dijk, Lovren, Robertson, Milner, Wijnaldum, Lallana, Mane, Sturridge, Salah.
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