Liverpool’s pre-season friendly win over Real Betis on Friday night was slightly tempered by an injury to Curtis Jones which forced him off the pitch after half an hour.
His withdrawal gave Trey Nyoni the platform to deliver a standout performance in Pittsburgh, and the encouraging news for Reds fans is that, while Arne Slot was largely coy on the 23-year-old’s setback, the decision was precautionary and it’s hoped that our number 17 will still play a part in the U.S. tour.
When asked about the severity of the issue, the head coach told liverpoolfc.com: “I think it’s too early to tell. He maybe could have played on, but I think maybe you could see he was not at 100 per cent.
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“In a friendly game, with so many days coming up in our tour, it was best to take him off. Hopefully he can recover really fast, but we have to wait and see. We hope he recovers really fast so we can see him in the next few games.
“It’s always a pity if he has to go out after 25 minutes, half an hour. And before that you could see that he was not completely free. It was unfortunate because he had two really good weeks during the training sessions so I looked forward to seeing him in the game, but unfortunately he had to go out.”
However, Slot pointed to Nyoni’s superb display as a positive offshot from Jones’ injury concern, saying: “The good thing about that was that we brought someone [on] that impressed me in the 45 minutes to an hour he played afterwards. That was the positive thing of Curtis going out for Trey, but of course for Curtis it’s a pity that he couldn’t play on.”
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When Liverpool fans saw Jones disappearing down the tunnel in discomfort after the first-half drinks break, they could’ve been forgiven for thinking ‘here we go again’ after last season was ravaged by injuries for the Reds.
The midfielder had his own issues during that campaign, with an ankle problem sidelining him for six weeks during the spring, but thankfully it sounds from Slot’s post-match comments that the 23-year-old hasn’t shipped a serious blow.
Hopefully he can play some part against Arsenal and Manchester United in the next few days, but in any case the head coach will surely be eager to give Nyoni plenty of minutes and offer him the platform to build upon his tremendous display in Pittsburgh.
Having spoken so positively about the Dutchman’s methods during the first month of pre-season and how it fits his best attributes, Jones must fancy nailing down a fixed starting role for Liverpool in the upcoming campaign.
Even if he doesn’t feature for the rest of the USA tour, let’s hope he’s back in business in good time for the Premier League opener against Ipswich three weeks from today.
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