Federico Chiesa has missed Liverpool’s past nine games because of injury.
Federico Chiesa could step up his return to Liverpool fitness today.
The winger has endured a frustrating period since arriving at the Reds from Juventus in the summer transfer window. Chiesa found himself frozen out at the Serie A giants in pre-season, which is why he has suffered fitness issues since his move to Merseyside. Chiesa has managed just three appearances so far and has missed the past nine matches because of injury.
Chiesa will again be absent for Liverpool’s trip to Southampton in the Premier League on Sunday. The Reds are being somewhat cautious with the Italy international as they don’t want his body to break down again. He is likely to need a sustained run of training before he is ready to return to Arne Slot’s squad.
However, the Liverpool head coach revealed at his pre-Southampton press conference that Chiesa could be part of ‘one exercise’ in today’s session at the AXA Training Session. That will be a boost for the ex-Fiorentina man, who will want to build momentum after his £10 million switch.
Certainly, Slot will want Chiesa – and all of his troops – available after the final international break of the year. Liverpool have a hectic fixture schedule they fight on four fronts. The Reds top the Premier League by five points, are at the summit of the Champions League standings and are in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
Along with Chiesa, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker (both hamstring) and Diogo Jota (rib) are set to miss out against Southampton but Harvey Elliott could be back from a three-month absence with a fractured foot.
Slot will have to think carefully about his team selection for the Southampton clash and for more of Liverpool’s upcoming games with the busy festive period approaching. The Dutchman has admitted he will assess South American trio Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Alexis Mac Allister – although the former is the only fit centre-forward so is likely to start at St Mary’s.
On how he’ll pick his line-up, the Dutchman added: “It’s a bit of everything. You talk to the players. You want to hear from the medical and the performance staff and what they feel about it. Then you listen to your own technical staff and then you look at the opponent you play and see what is the best team to select.
“It’s bit of everything but that’s not different to any other game. The only difference there is now that you always wonder the players who have played in South America how they come back. [They] normally [have] jet lag as well. That’s the only difference maybe between team selection for now than for all the other games because in all the other games you also look at the players and get the information from your staff members and look at the opponent.”
