Arne Slot may have been handed a blow to his pre-season preparations by one member of his Liverpool squad.
The presence of numerous Reds players at Euro 2024 and the Copa America means that he may not get the chance to work with some of them until late July or possibly early August, and even then the disruption from international tournaments mightn’t have ceased.
The men’s football event at the Olympic Games takes place in Paris from 24 July to 9 August, concluding just over a week before the start of the Premier League season, and Wataru Endo has voiced his desire to represent Japan at the competition if he’s called up as an overage player.
Speakin to Japanese outlet ABEMA Sports Time (via Liverpool Echo), the 31-year-old said regarding his potential involvement at the Olympics: “I’m also kind of wondering what will happen. Nothing has been decided yet, but my stance is that if I’m selected, I’d like to go.”
Endo’s potential participation at the Olympics isn’t what Slot would’ve wanted, especially as the new head coach gets to grips with the squad that he’s inherited ahead of his first season in charge of Liverpool.
As the tournament in Paris falls outside a designated FIFA international window, clubs aren’t obliged to release their players for it, so theoretically Anfield chiefs could veto the midfielder’s involvement at the Games.
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However, depriving a player of his wish to represent his country could risk discommoding them and cause damage in the long run. Also, unlike the Africa Cup of Nations and Asian Cup at the start of 2024 (the 31-year-old featured in the latter), this competition doesn’t clash directly with Premier League action.
Slot would obviously prefer to have Endo in his squad for Liverpool’s pre-season preparations, although he could nonetheless have been considering giving game-time to the likes of Stefan Bajcetic and Tyler Morton to assess their readiness for competitive minutes once the campaign begins in earnest.
From our perspective, of course we’d rather not lose the Japanese midfielder to the Olympics, but if it is to happen, then we just hope that he’d return from Paris without suffering any knocks which’d rule him out of action for this club.
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