JARROD BOWEN was probably in too much pain to notice the gesture.
But as the grimacing star was helped off at Anfield after suffering a heel injury, Jurgen Klopp gave him a consoling touch on the head.
West Ham yesterday confirmed scans showed “no significant damage” but he remains a doubt for Thursday’s Europa League clash at Sevilla.
And Klopp himself will be pleased the injury news is not too serious.
For before that 54th-minute exit due to a collision with Andy Robertson, the forward underlined why the Liverpool boss rates him so highly.
West Ham manager David Moyes did not see Klopp’s compassion as an illegal approach. Yet it would have been understandable if he had.
For his Anfield counterpart went into a game that should easily have seen the wasteful Hammers take a point raving about the 25-year-old.
Bowen, said Klopp, is “an unbelievable player”, adding: “We saw him as well at Hull and he was really good that time.
“I don’t think a lot of people expected this jump.”
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Bowen is now rated at £75million after Moyes made him his £22m first major buy in January 2020, a month after he began his second stint in charge at London Stadium.
He is from good farming country in Herefordshire and Moyes knows fine pedigree when he sees it. So does Klopp.
Reds strikers Sadio Mane and Mo Salah are scheduled to leave at the end of next season if new contracts are not sorted.
Yet that worst–case scenario will not worry Klopp quite so much as the Kop.
Not when he has £37m Luis Diaz on his books and a player in Bowen who looks prime stock for an Anfield future.
