Henserson faces race to make Leeds tie
LIVERPOOL captain Jordan Henderson is facing a race to be fully fit for the Premier League champions’ opening match against Leeds next weekend.
Hendeson missed the final four games of last season after sustaining a knee injury at Brighton in July and, although he started training this week, he was left out of the squad for yesterday’s friendly at home to Blackpool and will not return to full training until Tuesday.
‘Obviously Hendo was desperate to play a few minutes today as well, but it makes no real sense because he had to do an important session today for him,’ said manager Jurgen Klopp.
‘If he would have played today, 10 minutes or so would have probably been OK but that makes no sense so that was not possible, but he trained in big parts of this week and will probably join full team training next Tuesday. We will see how he develops, (there are) a few days until Leeds, how the boys come back from the national teams.’
Klopp did have some good news on the injury front, however, with Joel Matip – who has not featured since injuring a foot in the first post-lockdown game against Everton back on June 21 – was able to start against
Blackpool.
Meanwhile, Everton have made their first signing of the summer with the arrival of Brazil international Allan from Napoli.
The 29-year-old midfielder is reunited with Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti, with whom he worked at the Serie A club, after signing a three-year contract for an initial fee believed to be around £21.7million.
Allan, who featured in 61 matches for Ancelotti at Napoli, admitted he could not turn down the opportunity to work with the Italian again.
‘It is a real pleasure to sign for Everton. I am immensely happy to be here,’ he said.
‘It is the size of the club and the name of the coach which means you don’t think twice about coming to Everton.’