Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Emre Can will all likely miss Liverpool’s pre-season tour this summer, due to their summer tournament commitments.
Neil Jones of the Liverpool Echo reports that Liverpool fans will have to wait a while to see new £29 million man Firmino, with the club granting him three weeks off after South America’s equivalent to the European Championships.
The final of the tournament is not until 4th July, just eight days before Brendan Rodgers and his squad fly out to Bangkok to start their tour of the Far East and Australia.
Coutinho is in exactly the same boat as his compatriot, which will act as another disappointment to Liverpool fanatics on the other side of the world.
The report claims that the duo could possibly make the second-half of the tour, but only if Brazil are knocked out of Copa America this weekend, when they face Paraguay in the quarter-finals.
If not, which seems the more likely outcome, Firmino’s first appearance in a Liverpool shirt is likely to be against HJK Helsinki in Finland on 1st August.
Can is another key player who will miss the tour, with the 21-year-old currently starring for Germany’s Under-21’s in the European Championships in Czech Republic.
The same applies to highly-rated young centre-back Tiago Ilori, who has put in a string of impressive performances for Portugal.
Barring the above quartet, Rodgers is expected to have everyone else available for the tour; something he didn’t have last year because of the 2014 World Cup.
Liverpool’s first game of pre-season is against the Thai All Stars on 14th July, before they head Down Under. There they will face Brisbane Roar on 17th July and Adelaide United three days later, before playing a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on 24th July.
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