Liverpool players back for the big season restart

23 days after the reds defeated Southampton 3-1 at Anfield, the bulk of the reds squad will reconvene on Monday for a trip to Dubai.

There they will face Lyon of France on Sunday 11th December, before taking on AC Milan on Friday 16th.

Most of the players have enjoyed some downtime in recent weeks, apart from the seven involved in World Cup duty.  Only Darwin Nunez has so far come to the end of his World Cup journey after Uruguay failed to make the knockout stages.

Nunez will get an extra week off before he returns to Liverpool.

One man who perhaps hasn't been enjoying the luxury of a three week break is Luis Diaz, who has been working hard at Liverpool's training facility, and is expected to return to team training in Dubai.  He has been out with a knee injury since October.

The reds are expected to return home a day before the World Cup final and then have to consider their squad options for the trip to Man City in the Carabao Cup.  The game would likely have featured a number of youth players even without the added complexity of World Cup players being unavailable.

Naby Keita and Joel Matip are also both recovered from injuries and Diogo Jota, thought not ready for full team training, is also going on the trip to continue his physical recovery in warmer climates.

Both of Liverpool's games will end with a penalty shoot-out no matter what the match result - a bonus point being awarded to 'penalty winners'.

In the LFC Store