Chiesa ‘close to being back’ after 60-minute Liverpool U21 appearance | OneFootball

Italy international Federico Chiesa has made progress in his return to action with Liverpool, as the former Juventus forward played for an hour in a midweek match with the U21 side, the club have confirmed.

The 27-year-old has not played in any competition since the end of September, but coach Arne Slot has revealed that he is now ‘close to being back’.

Chiesa ‘close to being back’ for Liverpool

Federico Chiesa and Liverpool teammates in training ahead of Premier League fixture against Southampton. (picture via www.liverpoolfc.com)

Chiesa joined Liverpool from Juventus in a €15m move at the end of the summer transfer window. He joined the Premier League outfit with no real pre-season training behind him after being exiled from the Bianconeri first-team group over the summer.

Since then, he has been limited to just 78 minutes of action with the Liverpool first team, split across three different appearances in the Premier League, EFL Cup and Champions League.

Slot revealed last week that Chiesa was still not training in full with the Liverpool first-team, and that he was only taking part in ‘one or two parts’ of the sessions instead.

Though he has not played since Liverpool’s 4-1 win over West Ham in the League Cup on September 25, Slot believes that Chiesa is now finally close to making a return to the first-team group.

“With Diogo being close to being back, Federico being close to being back, and the same for Alisson, that means that only Ibou [Konate], Conor [Bradley] and Kostas [Tsimikas] are a bit further away from playing time,” Slot confirmed in his recent Liverpool press conference.