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Jayden Danns was among three notable absentees during Liverpool’s pre-season friendly against Championship opposition, but the reason has now been explained.
The 18-year-old caught the eye last season and has been involved in pre-season training under Arne Slot since it got underway earlier this month.
He is one of a host of young players working with the new head coach in the absence of regular senior players, but the forward was notably absent from the behind-closed-door friendly on Friday.
Preston were the opposition at the AXA Training Centre, and the Athletic’s James Pearce has since explained Danns was unable to be involved “due to a minor injury.”
Fabio Carvalho and later Lewis Koumas, Harvey Blair and Kaide Gordon led the line for the Reds in the 1-0 defeat – a match that saw Slot make 10 changes at half time.
The hope for Danns now is that his fitness issue will not interfere with his opportunity to be involved in the Reds’ three-stop tour of the United States.
Caoimhin Kelleher and Andy Robertson were also not involved on Friday.
Liverpool jet off on Tuesday for three friendlies, with Real Betis (Jul 26), Arsenal (Jul 31) and Man United (Aug 3) awaiting before the squad return to Merseyside and face Sevilla (Aug 11) ahead of their league opener.
Danns made five senior appearances last season and scored twice. He is still building his physical capacity to consistently compete at the top, but he showed plenty of promise.
What Slot has said
The head coach was level-headed when he gave his verdict after Friday’s 1-0 loss, saying: “The most important thing is that everybody was fit before the game and they stayed fit during the game as well.
“It’s been a good two weeks. Unfortunately, the result was not what we wanted, but they stayed fit, many of them got minutes [and] also a lot of young players got a few minutes, so that was a good thing.
“We couldn’t have asked for more from the boys in the first two weeks – [they have] worked really hard, tried to implement ideas and it’s not that we only bring new ideas.
“There are a lot of things that have been done here that were really good. So, like I said, a bit unlucky to lose 1-0 if you only conceded one shot.”
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