Liverpool manager Arne Slot confirmed that forward Luis Díaz missed the club’s friendly defeat to AC Milan on Saturday due to ongoing speculation linking him with a move away from Anfield this summer.
A source has told ESPN that the Colombia international is determined to leave Liverpool in the current transfer window and is hoping Bayern Munich return with an improved offer after having a €67.5 million ($79.2m) bid rejected by the Premier League champions.
Despite being included in Liverpool’s 29-player squad for their preseason Asia tour, Díaz did not feature in Saturday’s opening game — a 4-2 loss to Milan in Hong Kong.
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“There’s a lot of rumours around him lately and I cannot go into that,” Slot told a news conference. “He’s training really well with us but we’ve decided for now not to play him yet.”
Slot confirmed that he has spoken to Diaz about the situation, adding: “I’m used to talking to most of my players on a regular basis. Like I said, Lucho is training really well and we’ve decided that he’s not playing at the moment in the games. I cannot comment much more about that.”
As to whether Díaz wans to depart Liverpool, Slot said: “That is not the person to ask, me.”
Díaz enjoyed his most prolific season with Liverpool last year, scoring 17 goals to help them win the Premier League title. However, according to a source, the 28-year-old has made it clear to Liverpool officials that he wants to move on.
Liverpool also rejected an offer from Barcelona earlier this summer, sources said.
Darwin Núñez, also the subject of speculation linking him with a transfer this summer, similarly missed out on Saturday’s game. However Slot said the absence of the Uruguayn striker and that of midfielder Wataru Endo was a fitness matter.
“In Darwin’s situation he has trained also really well and played a few good games for us already this season,” Slot said. “But he was injured so we didn’t want to take the risk.
“It was a little bit the same with Wata — he trained with us for the whole week but we didn’t want to take a risk with him as well. In this situation we thought it was smarter for Darwin and for Wata to be out today but I assume they will be there with us when we are in Japan playing the next game.”
Liverpool will next take on Yokohama F. Marinos on Wednesday.
Information from ESPN’s Rodra was used in this report.
