Arne Slot gives Liverpool injury update as eight players return but two stars absent


Arne Slot told of his satisfaction that his Liverpool troops came through their opening pre-season friendly of the summer unscathed.
Slot took charge of his first game as head coach as the Reds lost 1-0 to Preston North End at the club's AXA Training Centre. Robbie Brady scored the only goal of the game in the first half with a fine long-range strike for the Championship outfit.
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Hide AdLiverpool were depleted of a significant amount of senior players because of Euro 2024 and the Copa America. Mo Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Kostas Tsimikas were the only out-and-out first-team regulars to feature.
Returning loanees Sepp van den Berg (Mainz 05) and Fabio Carvalho (Hull City) started, while Ben Doak made his first appearance since December because of a knee injury. Tyler Morton (Hull City), Luke Chambers (Wigan), Nat Phillips (Cardiff), Owen Beck (Dundee) and Harvey Davies (Crewe)who all were loaned out last term featured in the second half.
However, Andy Robertson, who reported back to duty earlier this week after representing Scotland at the Euros, was absent along with goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
Slot told LFCTV: "Two weeks of tough training sessions, it's important to play a game. The most important thing was that everyone was fit before the game and stayed fit during the game. It's been a good two weeks. Unfortunately, the result wasn't one we wanted but many of them got minutes and a lot of young players got a few minutes so that was a good thing.
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Hide Ad"I've seen a lot during the training sessions, maybe a bit more than today but that also had to do with the player style of the opponent. We controlled the game completely, we only conceded one shot.
"We had some good build-up moments and created chances in the first half. We didn't create that much in the second half, which is normal, we had a lot of young players in the team and playing in the wrong positions as well.
"I couldn't have asked more from the boys in the past two weeks. They've worked really hard, tried to implement ideas and it's not that we only bring new ideas, a lot of things already being done are really good. A bit unlucky to lose 1-0 after conceding only one shot.”
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