Father of Liverpool's Diaz released after kidnapping
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp has hailed the release of Luis Diaz's kidnapped father in Colombia just a couple of hours before the team's Europa League tie in Toulouse as perfect timing.
Luis Manuel Diaz was taken along with his wife Cilenis Marulanda 12 days ago, although the player's mother was freed swiftly.
After a long wait and days of negotiation with guerilla group the National Liberation Army (ELN), Diaz's father has been released.
"It looks like Lucho (Diaz) is really happy, (giving) thumbs up all the time," Klopp told TNT Sports.
"It looks very, very good. Timing-wise it couldn't have been better. If it is now then great."
Diaz, who scored the equalising goal at Luton on Sunday in his first appearance since his father was taken, was named in the starting line-up for Liverpool's Europa League tie in Toulouse just minutes of his dad's release was made public.
The release was announced by the Colombian government's delegation which is in peace negotiations with the ELN.
The kidnapping on October 28 in the small town of Barrancas quickly drew international attention.
It was initially unclear who carried out the abduction. But Colombia's government announced last week it had information that Diaz was kidnapped by an ELN unit.
The ELN later acknowledged the kidnapping, saying it was a mistake and that the group's top leadership had ordered his release.
An ELN statement on Sunday said that the planned release was hampered by military deployments in northern Colombia and that it couldn't guarantee a safe release under those circumstances.
The Colombian military said on Monday it was shifting its positions to facilitate a release.
Both parents of the Liverpool player had been kidnapped by armed men on motorcycles at a gas station.
But Diaz's mother was rescued within hours by police who set up roadblocks around the town of 40,000 people, near Colombia's border with Venezuela.
After the kidnapping, special forces were deployed in the area to search for Diaz's father in a mountain range that straddles both countries and is covered by cloud forest. Police also offered a $US48,000 ($A75,000) reward for information leading to him.
