Sam Allardyce comments on Liverpool injuries not designed to wind up Jurgen Klopp

Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce has apologised to Jurgen Klopp over his comments about Liverpool's injury crisis.

Allardyce claimed Klopp had underestimated how 'ferocious' the Premier League is, and the spate of hamstring injuries were down to his insistence on a high-tempo pressing game, when he spoke with talkSPORT on Wednesday.

The Reds lost three more players to injury during their Capital One Cup semi-final first-leg win over Stoke City on Tuesday, and key midfielder Philippe Coutinho appears likely to be sidelined until February with his hamstring issue.

Klopp earlier hit back at Allardyce, who had also called him 'a soft German' over an incident during a game between the two sides last week, when he said: "I knew about the Premier League. It's not a problem. Maybe he [Allardyce] has time to think about Liverpool problems.

"The problem is that, in this situation, we speak about the intensity of my style. I didn't create this style, how could I? I'm not a genius."

Allardyce was asked about his relationship with Klopp at Thursday's press conference ahead of the FA Cup third round clash with Arsenal on Saturday, and he was looking to rebuild bridges.

"If Jurgen is listening, I didn't mean to upset you or criticise your club in any way. I was just giving what I see could be one of the reasons why we get injuries," he said.

"It was a question that Alan asked me, I answered it and never expected it to bring the headlines it's brought.

"I am very wary about the amount of work we do in the week now, in the hope that our players have enough energy to do the running in this period of time to try and get a result. We are all suffering because of it.

"I'll probably suffer some injuries now, by the end of next week, when we are playing three games in a short period of time. I was just trying to say he hasn't experienced this level of football before and maybe that might be one of the causes.

"I had no intentions of trying to wind him up or any such. Alan [Brazil] asked me to talk about Sunderland. He threw the question in at the end and maybe I should have said it's not for me to answer, it's for Jurgen."