Federico Chiesa was absent from the Liverpool matchday squad as the Reds beat West Ham 5-0, the 16th game that he has missed this season.
Not accounting for the two fixtures he sat out soon after his summer move from Juventus, Chiesa has now missed 16 games for various reasons.
His latest absence comes for the trip to West Ham‘s London Stadium, with academy striker Jayden Danns named on the bench in his place.
It comes after a lengthy period of unknown injury for the Italian, along with two previous games missed with separate illnesses – including most recently in the 6-3 win over Tottenham.
West Ham 0-5 Liverpool
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Chiesa had returned to the bench for the 3-1 victory at home to Leicester on Boxing Day, but having not featured in that clash he dropped out again.
After the win over West Ham, Slot explained: “With Federico I’ve said it many times already, we are working on two things.
“We are working on his match fitness and whenever we can, we try to bring him on the bench with the team.
“But he was on the bench during the week and we thought it was better for him to have some extra training sessions instead of joining us, so it’s a constant balance we have to find between getting him fitter and fitter and letting him join the team.”
The 27-year-old has played a combined 90 minutes over two outings since making a comeback at the beginning of December, with one half for the U21s and another in the Carabao Cup win over Southampton 11 days ago.
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While Slot and his staff have taken caution when it comes to Chiesa’s recovery, with the head coach repeatedly stressing the fact he missed an entire pre-season at Juventus, the lack of consistency is a growing concern.
Fortunately, Liverpool have five other senior forwards fit along with the high-potential Danns, with Luis Diaz taking over from Darwin Nunez up front at West Ham.
Diaz’s return to the starting lineup saw the only change from Thursday night, with Cody Gakpo, Mo Salah and he all scoring in the 5-0 rout.
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