New Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola spoke to the media in Chicago on Tuesday, as the Reds begin two weeks in the United States.
He gave updates on when certain World Cup participants will eventually report to training, alongside the fitness of injured players like Hugo Ekitike.
Coming up, Liverpool have American-based friendlies against Sunderland, Wrexham and Leeds United.
Wirtz, Isak + Gravenberch
Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands were all eliminated over three weeks ago, in the Round of 16.
This means that Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Ryan Gravenberch are on the verge of joining first-team training.
“The three players that are going to join us are going to be [in the] second week fully with us. They all – because of different reasons – have individual days for their arrivals, but I think the sooner we can start working with them and they can understand what we want from them, the better.
“Individually, I talked with the three of them, they know the main things, but I am looking forward to having them here with the group and to go slowly, slowly with recovering bodies [to the squad].” – Andoni Iraola
Alisson, Gakpo + van Dijk
Simultaneously, Alisson Becker and Dutch duo Cody Gakpo and Virgil van Dijk will begin training on Merseyside, at the AXA Training Centre.
“Because of different reasons, especially Virgil [van Dijk] because he has been the player with most minutes in Europe I would say – and Cody [Gakpo] for other reasons – they are going to start training basically in the same week as the others.
“But instead of making them come here with the team, we considered that it was sensible with them to start the first week training with a small group or even with younger players that are at the AXA and join us when we [return].” – Andoni Iraola
World Cup finalists
Alexis Mac Allister and new signing Victor Munoz were involved in Sunday’s World Cup final, although the latter failed to play a single minute at the tournament.
Still, after a period of rest, neither might make Gameweek 1’s trip to Newcastle United.
“They deserve their holidays and some rest, also. I hope they have time to at least train with us a little bit, but it is true that it will probably affect the beginning of the season a little bit.
“We cannot only think in the short term and the first game against Newcastle; we have to also understand, especially in the case of Alexis [Mac Allister], who played a lot of minutes during the season and a lot of minutes in the World Cup, that they deserve this rest.” – Andoni Iraola
Injury updates
As for the injury list, Stefan Bajcetic and Wataru Endo are about to reintegrate, but Iraola says that Giovanni Leoni, Conor Bradley and Hugo Ekitike will take longer. Particularly the French forward, which should boost Isak’s early game time.
- READ MORE: Ekitike ruled out for the rest of the season
“We have Stefan [Bajcetic] and Wataru [Endo] that are close to training with the group. They will start during this tour – not fully maybe, but partially with the group.
“With the others, we have to wait more. In terms of order, I think the closest one to returning is Leoni. After will be Conor [Bradley] and Hugo [Ekitike]. But especially the last two are still way off, we are talking about months and still a lot of time out.” – Andoni Iraola
