London, Jan 1 (IANS): Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will miss his team's Premier League meeting with Chelsea on Sunday after returning a suspected positive COVID-19 test result on Saturday.

The club issued a statement on Saturday saying that the 54-year-old manager was reporting mild symptoms and "is now isolating".

"The Reds manager, who reported mild symptoms ahead of the fixture, is now isolating. Assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders will therefore lead the team for the kick-off at Stamford Bridge. Testing of the entire first-team set-up has revealed no further positive cases within the playing squad in addition to the three confirmed by Klopp on Friday," said the statement.

"Three backroom staff members have returned suspected positive results, however."

Klopp had on Friday confirmed three new positive COVID-19 cases in his squad but added that the "number is not big enough" to impact their visit to Chelsea.

"We have three new COVID cases in the team and a few more in the staff, so it's not so cool at the moment," Klopp had said on Friday, confirming the new cases.

"I'm not (able to reveal the names) because we still have to make the whole processes, getting a proper PCR and all these kind of things, but you will see the day after tomorrow on the teamsheet. It will be pretty clear then who is affected or infected," Klopp was quoted as saying by Liverpool's official website.

Asked whether the situation could force Liverpool to seek a postponement of the fixture at Chelsea, Klopp replied: "Not yet, but we don't know. We never had this kind of proper outbreak where 10, 15, 20 players had it, for us, it's more every day another one. Staff happens now more and more often, so as I said before, it feels like a lottery in the morning when you stand there and you wait for the result. It was now pretty much day by day always one case -- today another one."