The match on January 6 was rescheduled after Liverpool reported a “rapidly growing number” of COVID-19 cases to the EFL, who acted in line with government guidance by postponing the fixture.
The EFL said in a statement at the time: “Having now fully reviewed the circumstances involved, the league has accepted Liverpool’s request after determining, albeit reluctantly, that a postponement was the only option as the club looks to mitigate against the further risk of infection amongst its squad and staff alongside ensuring public health was protected by not travelling from Liverpool to London.”
Klopp has said, however, that later tests showed that only one player, Trent Alexander-Arnold, actually had the virus.
According to sources, Liverpool underwent at least two rounds of testing prior to the postponement.
The first round, involving the use of lateral flow device (LFD) tests, highlighted a number of positive cases.
The second round, involving the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests carried out by an independent laboratory, also highlighted a number of positive cases.
But a third round of tests conducted after the scheduled first leg indicated that the players in question were in fact negative. Liverpool did not comment when asked to confirm this and to explain when the results of the third set of tests were revealed.
‘False positive’ LFD results are considered highly unusual, with analysis by NHS Test and Trace showing LFD tests to have an estimated specificity of at least 99.97 per cent.
The chance of a succession of ‘false positive’ results is therefore considered extremely unlikely.
On Sunday, after the club’s FA Cup victory over League One Shrewsbury Town, Klopp said that Alexander-Arnold was the only player to actually test positive.
“We had last week a proper outbreak and it showed up that we had a lot of false positives but the rules are like they are so all these players who are false positives couldn’t play.
“The only real positive came from Trent Alexander-Arnold and all the rest were false positives.”
It is thought that EFL clubs want to be provided with greater clarity surrounding rules on postponements following Liverpool’s successful appeal to have their Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal pushed back and the questions now being asked about ‘false positives’.
