Liverpool are set to begin pre-season training on Friday, but 14 players won’t be in attendance for Arne Slot‘s first sessions.
Slot and his staff have been preparing for the start of Liverpool’s new era and, on Friday, they welcome back the first-team squad.
They will be at least 14 short of a full house, though, with international fixtures interrupting pre-season training.
UPDATE: Mo Salah, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho, Nat Phillips and Wataru Endo will all be missing from the first day of training
Liverpool still have seven players involved at Euro 2024, with Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Ibrahima Konate and Diogo Jota all reaching the quarter-finals.
Also, each of Liverpool’s four Copa America competitors are still active in the USA – Alisson, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Alexis Mac Allister all still harbour ambitions of winning the tournament outright.
And what of Liverpool’s three players who were knocked out of the European Championships at the group stage?
Well, despite the early exit of Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Vitezslav Jaros, they will also be absent from the first pre-season sessions.
This is because they are still on holiday. Each player is entitled to at least three weeks off and it has been less than 10 days since they were eliminated.
They have at least another two weeks off but will be back in time to fly to America for Liverpool’s three friendlies, against Real Betis, Arsenal and Man United.
As for the players still involved in the major tournaments, they will be on duty for at least another few days and quite possibly beyond, with the final of both taking place within a few hours of each other on July 14.
If any Reds were to make the final, they would return to training after the US tour but before Liverpool play Sevilla at Anfield. That home match is to take place on August 11.
The first competitive match of the season is a Premier League away match, against Ipswich on August 17 at 12.30pm (BST).
There are other players who could be missing too, besides those on international duty.
Ben Doak was left out of Scotland’s European Championships squad due to injury and may not be ready for full training on Friday.
Meanwhile, there are questions over Sepp van den Berg who has previously spoken of a desire to leave Liverpool. He is, though, still likely to be involved in pre-season.
Adrian‘s presence is another question mark. He is officially out of contract but is still listed on the club’s website as a player.
The first game of pre-season is against Betis, the club he is reportedly set to sign for.
Liverpool’s first day of pre-season
Players expected to be back: Kelleher, Tsimikas, Quansah, Bradley, Endo, Jones, Elliott, Bajcetic, Salah, Carvalho, Phillips, Van den Berg
** UPDATE: Salah, Endo, Elliott, Carvalho and Phillips are not among those returning on day one.
Absentees: Alisson, Jaros, Gomez, Van Dijk, Konate, Robertson, Alexander-Arnold, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Diaz, Nunez, Gakpo, Jota
Likely youth players: Pitaluga, Davies, Morton, Williams, Danns, Koumas, McConnell, Clark, Nallo, Nyoni, Gordon, Beck
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