Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp said preparation for Sunday's 3-0 home win against Nottingham Forest had been "the most difficult I’ve ever had in my life".
Reds forward Luis Diaz did not feature in the Premier League clash at Anfield after reports that his parents had been kidnapped in Colombia and Klopp said the player had returned home to be with family members.
Liverpool confirmed an "ongoing situation involving the family of Luis Diaz" earlier on Sunday and Colombia’s president said Diaz’s mother "has been rescued" but his father remains missing.
Klopp said: "The game preparation was the most difficult I’ve ever had in my life. I didn’t expect that, I wasn’t prepared for it.
"I don’t want to make the game bigger than it was, but definitely, we tried to help Luis with the fight we put in because obviously we want to help and we cannot really help.
"So the only thing we can do is fight for him and that’s what the boys did."
Liverpool secured their fifth straight home Premier League win to move three points behind leaders Tottenham.
But Klopp said: "How can you make a football game really important on a day like this? It’s really difficult. I’ve never struggled with that in my life.
"We heard late last night about it. We spoke to Luis, he wanted to go home…Then we got the news with his mum, which is fantastic, and since then nothing really.
"We are obviously the first people to get involved and we try to have knowledge of everything as much as we can, but we don’t want to disturb in any way the important people there, we just want to support, that’s it."
Liverpool said in a statement that they were supporting the player. It read: "Liverpool Football Club can confirm it is aware of an ongoing situation involving the family of Luis Diaz in Colombia.
"It is our fervent hope that the matter is resolved safely and at the earliest possible opportunity. In the meantime, the player’s welfare will continue to be our immediate priority."
Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez scored within the space of four minutes before the interval to put Liverpool in control and Mohamed Salah struck his eighth league goal of the season in the second half.
Klopp said of the win: "If you’re chasing a game it’s obviously a completely different task, but if you are in complete control you should stay in control.
"The last five minutes I think before half-time, all of a sudden we were a bit too deep and they just could chip the balls there and these are moments we have to improve, clearly.
"In creative situations you can always improve because the boys have a lot of potential and we have to use it fully."
Once Liverpool broke the deadlock there was no way back for injury-hit Forest, but Klopp still remains wary of his side’s ability to protect a lead in front of their own fans.
"You might remember three or four years ago, all of a sudden we became slightly more dominant and were leading at home and always came under pressure," he said.
"Like one-nil up meant nothing. Everybody thought 'Oh my god, 1-0, 10 minutes to go!’ Maybe they saw the equaliser coming and that’s the situation you have to grow into and the boys showed wonderful signs in all aspects.
"That’s now something we have to learn again because the key positions are obviously occupied by different players than that time, up front, midfield, last line.
"So that’s the space for improvement. Creating without losing the compactness is pretty much the idea."
