Klopp says he couldn’t guarantee Henderson playing time at Liverpool before move to Saudi Arabia

Jordan Henderson’s move to Saudi Arabia came after Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp failed to offer guarantees over playing time, the German coach said Friday.

Henderson, a supporter of the LGBTQ community who was heavily criticized for joining Al-Ettifaq during the transfer window, said in an interview last week that he would have stayed at the Merseyside club if he had felt wanted.

“Hendo said the truth, in all departments, that’s how it was,” Klopp said at a news conference Friday. “If I would have told him ‘Hendo, stay here, you will be the main man in midfield,’ he would have stayed but as much as I wanted him to stay, I couldn’t say that so that’s why it was better that Hendo moved on.

“There’s not a bit of bad blood or whatever.”

Amnesty International says that in Saudi Arabia, members of the LGBT community, including foreigners, “risk imprisonment and corporal punishment for same-sex relations, expressing their identity or support for LGBT rights.”

In an interview with The Athletic, Henderson said he was “really hurt” by the accusation that he had turned his back on the community.