Arne Slot says he will make a late call on whether Federico Chiesa will travel with Liverpool’s squad to south London for their Premier League clash at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The 26-year-old, who joined the Anfield club in the summer from Juventus, was absent from Liverpool’s midweek Champions League victory against Bologna due to an unspecified injury.
Chiesa’s availability for this weekend’s match at Selhurst Park remains uncertain. Slot has stated that a decision on his inclusion in the squad will depend on whether he participates in Friday’s training session.
“(It’s) wait and see,” Slot said on Chiesa. “He didn’t train for the last two days.
“He came in today to see if he could train and if he can I still have a decision to make because we can only select 20 (players) and he hasn’t trained for a few days.
“But first of all, we have to wait and see if he can even train — and if he can then it’s our decision if we bring him to the game or not.”
Liverpool have been managing Chiesa’s minutes, given he did not play any matches in pre-season with his former or current club.
The winger has played 80 minutes across three appearances for Liverpool this season.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have the chance to extend their lead at the top of the table by four points, albeit briefly, with a win at Palace in the lunchtime kick-off.
However, Slot remains focused on the present, stating he’s taking it one game at a time and isn’t looking too far ahead.
“You always look at the first one (match) and that’s Crystal Palace and they’ve already shown how tough of an opponent they are against the big teams like (Manchester) United and Chelsea in both situations, they got a result so that’s the first game and that is why it’s the most important one and a difficult one for us,” he added. “12:30 kick-off after playing Wednesday evening, late in the Champions League, facing a team that had the whole week to prepare but that is part of working at a top club that we face those teams and we have to be ready for those teams and that’s what we are (going to do) tomorrow.”
(Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
