Loris Karius to stay at Liverpool as Jurgen Klopp backs goalkeeper after Champions League final concussion diagnosis

Jurgen Klopp has admitted he will take a 'business as usual' approach to Loris Karius following Liverpool's return to pre-season for the 2018/19 campaign.

Karius put in perhaps the worst performance of any Liverpool player last season in what was the Anfield club's most important match - the Champions League final against Real Madrid.

The German glovesman made two huge errors to all but hand Real a 3-1 victory; he first rolled the ball straight into the path of Karim Benzema, who finished into the open net, before flapping Gareth Bale's long-range shot to concede.

Karius was the subject of death threats on social media following the match, but a few weeks after it was confirmed that the goalkeeper had suffered a concussion early in the game - before he made his first error.

A clash with Sergio Ramos had Karius showing 26 of 30 markers for concussion, and much of the blame for the 25-year-old's showing has been absolved from Karius himself.

However, Klopp does not want to use this concussion as an excuse.

"If you ask Loris, he says he didn't think about it and didn't use it for a second as an excuse," Klopp said to Liverpool's official website.

"We don't use it as an excuse, we use it as an explanation. That's always important, that's what analysis should be: you explain why things happen.

"So, from this point of view, from my side everything is fine. We don't think about that anymore and we start completely new."

Now Liverpool are back in pre-season, Klopp has promised everything is normal moving forward regarding Karius.

"It's all normal here," he added. "I don't know exactly what people think or made of the situation. The only thing I can say is he had a concussion in the game.

Karius' second error allowed Gareth Bale to score, and put the result beyond all doubt

"That's how it is. You make a mistake against Chester and it's a mistake. If you make a mistake in a Champions League final, it's a mistake you cannot change anymore, even if you want to - and we all want to.

"He was influenced by that knock, that is 100 per cent. What the rest of the world is making of it, I don't care. It's really not important what the people say. We do not use it as an excuse.

"Now people could think for us it is the explanation - and for me it is 100 per cent the explanation and that's all."