Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Adam Lallana is unlikely to feature for Liverpool again this season, with the plan being to ensure he is in the best shape for his next club.
Lallana signed a short-term extension to his contract with the Reds to ensure he remains at Anfield for the remainder of the current campaign, but after that will depart.
It will mark the end of a six-year tenure with the club, in which he has made 178 appearances and won the Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup.
Leaving at the end of July, Lallana is then expected to join Leicester on a free transfer, reuniting with the manager who brought him to Liverpool back in 2014, Brendan Rodgers.
Both parties agreed when the 32-year-old put pen to paper last month that he would not block the pathway for those with long-term futures with the Reds, and Curtis Jones has since scored his first Premier League goal for the club.
This will remain the approach taken in the remaining five games, with Klopp telling reporters ahead of the clash with Brighton that Lallana is now only a break-glass option.
“It’s clear that Adam will leave the club in the summer, and for now, if you ask me about it, I already miss everything about him, and he’s still here,” he said.
“He’s an outstanding player, he’s one of the most influential players on a training quality that I ever had in my life, he’s an incredible professional.
“But now we have a difficult situation, and we respect that a lot. Everything with Adam is sorted, let me say it like this.
“He’s top fit, he’s in training, everything is fine, but yes, the future is his future.
“And if we need his help on the pitch, we can get it, he’s there and trains 100 percent, but as long as we don’t need it, he will just train.
“That’s the normal thing. I think there were a lot of discussions about players with ending contracts, here it was not even a discussion, it was clear we would extend Adam’s contract and he wanted to do that as well.
“But we will not put any risk on his future or whatever, that’s absolutely clear.
“He is one of the most important players of the time since I am here, so I wish him only the best for the future.
“From my point of view, he is already a legend here, so he can now start becoming a legend somewhere else from next season on.”
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