Liverpool’s pre-season friendly against AC Milan from Hong Kong on Saturday was most noteworthy on the pitch for being the first time fans got to see superstar signing Florian Wirtz in action. It was also notable, though, for a pair of players who play.
Both winger Luis Diaz and striker Darwin Nuñez were absent from Arne Slot’s side with speculation regarding their future running rampant in recent weeks—and in the case of Diaz in particular there is a belief a transfer to Bayern Munich could be close.
“In Lucho’s situation, yeah,” Slot confirmed when asked about the absences following Saturday’s friendly. “There’s a lot of rumours around him lately and I cannot go into that. He’s training really well with us but we have decided for now not to play him.
“In Darwin’s situation he has trained really well and played a few good games but he was injured so we didn’t take the risk, the same with [Wataru Endo]. We thought it was smarter for Darwin and Wata to be out but I assume they will play the next game.”
Nuñez was heavily linked with a move to Atletico Madrid early in the summer and then to Napoli, but in the end neither side appeared willing to meet Liverpool’s valuation and if he is to depart the club over the next month the likeliest option could be Al-Hilal.
The Saudi side have been rumoured to be considering Nuñez at the request of manager Simone Inzaghi, and the player was rumoured to at least be open to a move to the Saudi Pro League in January when Al Nassr reportedly made a €70M bid to sign him.
At the time, Liverpool were in the midst of a title race and didn’t have a replacement lined up and so refused to sell. Now, though, that fee would likely be accepted—and would then be put towards trying to sign Newcastle superstar striker Alexander Isak.
“I’m talking to most of my players on a regular basis,” Slot added when pressed on Diaz’ absence. “Like I said, Lucho is training really well but we’ve decided that he’s not playing at the moment in games and I cannot comment much more about that.”
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