HUGE BLOW SArne Slot offers post-match update on Curtis Jones injury

Liverpool are waiting to discover the extent of the injury that forced Curtis Jones from the pitch during the first half of the 1-0 win over Real Betis in Pittsburgh on Friday night.

The midfielder was withdrawn after 30 minutes at Acrisure Stadium and replaced by Trey Nyoni.

Arne Slot confirmed afterwards the decision to remove Jones was taken with precaution in mind and the head coach is hopeful of the No.17 featuring further during the club’s USA tour.

He said: “I think it’s too early to tell [how bad it is]. He maybe could have played on, but I think maybe you could see he was not at 100 per cent.

“In a friendly game, with so many days coming up in our tour, it was best to take him off. Hopefully he can recover from [it] really fast, but we have to wait and see.

“We hope he recovers really fast so we can see him in the next few games.”

Jones had spoken on Thursday about his enjoyment of working under Slot in the opening few weeks of pre-season and how eager he is to play a key role for Liverpool during 2024-25.

Slot added: “It’s always a pity if he has to go out after 25 minutes, half an hour. And before that you could see that he was not completely free.

“It was unfortunate because he had two really good weeks during the training sessions so I looked forward to seeing him in the game, but unfortunately he had to go out.

“The good thing about that was that we brought someone [on] that impressed me in the 45 minutes to an hour he played afterwards.

“That was the positive thing of Curtis going out for Trey, but of course for Curtis it’s a pity that he couldn’t play on.”