Curtis Jones suffers pre-season injury but Liverpool replacement provides silver lining for Arne Slot

07/27/2024 04:59 AM

Liverpool suffered a potential blow during their 1-0 victory over Real Betis as Curtis Jones was forced off through injury.

The midfielder was substituted on 30 minutes and replaced by Trey Nyoni during the pre-season clash in Pittsburgh on Friday night.

Dominik Szoboszlai scored the winner in Arne Slot’s first outing but the new Reds boss admitted to concerns over Jones.

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.”

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.”

Jones recently spoke of his delight at Slot’s arrival, having mostly been a fringe player under Jurgen Klopp.

"He's amazing,” the 23-year-old said when asked about Slot.

“It's probably the happiest I've been. As a style of play, it suits me. It is a clear plan. Arne is fully involved in the training, he coaches us a lot, he's big on the finer details.

“He knows it's going to take a bit of time because it's a big change. I came around the team as a young lad. I always had a way of playing, but I had to adapt and change. It wasn't anything I couldn't do.

“But this now is more me. I can get on the ball more. I can 'do me' more."

Nyoni’s impressive display provided a silver lining for Slot during an eye-opening friendly in the States.

The 17-year-old caught the manager’s eye and impressed Liverpool fans watching on from home.

Nyoni made his senior debut in the 3-0 victory over Southampton in the FA Cup earlier this year, becoming Liverpool’s youngest ever player to feature in the competition.

The former Leicester academy star was promoted to first-team training under Klopp last season after impressing in the Reds’ youth setup.