[po pochwaleniu występu pomocnika w ostatnim starciu z City – dop. red.] These are the things Thiago talked about on his first day and that happen in every game he plays. The problem is that Thiago is not always available for every meeting.
When you look at his list of injuries and the number of matches he has missed in his career, it’s clear that he’ll be unavailable at times. Liverpool have played 63 games last season after reaching the League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League finals, while Thiago has appeared 39 times. Although he missed out on matches, he was the third-highest midfielder behind Henderson and Fabinho.
After a warm-up for the League Cup final in February against Chelsea, he left the pitch in tears after feeling his Achilles tendon tense out of the game. History almost repeated itself in the Champions League final in Paris.
Thiago, who was returning from an Achilles injury, was about to start the match against Real Madrid. It was like that until during the warm-up he said that he didn’t feel his toes after the painkiller injection. It looked like Naby Keïta would replace him in the eleven, but due to the chaos outside the stadium the match didn’t start until 21:36 and it was judged that Thiago seemed to be in sufficient capacity to play from the start.
“Thiago missed a warm-up because he couldn’t feel his fingers from his last injection,” writes Pep Lijnders, assistant coach of Liverpool in his new book. “Just before going out onto the pitch, he told me, ‘Make sure Naby is ready.’ Let me tell you one thing: the coach doesn’t want to hear these things right before the final. The problem was also that if he did not come out in eleven, he would not be able to sit on the bench anymore ”.
“We had doubts and only after working quickly on our legs did we decide to trust him because he felt he could play. He had enough experience to figure it out. Naby handled the situation amazingly. I have to give him merit here, ”added the trainer.
Thiago’s problems with injuries have been unwanted circumstances throughout his career. In the last 8 seasons, he has played at least 30 league games only once.
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