Debut imminent: £60m centre-back is coming to save Liverpool

Liverpool are currently undergoing something of a centre-back availability crisis.

That is not ideal - with the Premier League season due to kick off in under a month.

Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool’s 35-year-old club captain has only just returned to the AXA Training Centre. The Dutchman did not fly out to join his teammates on the three-game USA tour.

That extended break reduces Andoni Iraola’s options at centre-back by one and more anguish was to follow last weekend.

Liverpool lose Joe Gomez to injury

Joe Gomez went off injured during the first game of the tour against Sunderland in Nashville. He was replaced by Ifeanyi Ndukwe - an untested 18-year-old who won’t be eligible to play in the Premier League next season.

The Austrian stood alongside Mor Talla Ndiaye - another teenager who the Reds have invested a lot of hope in. But the Senegalese isn’t ready for a full season of Premier League football given he has only just stepped up from under-21 level.

Jeremy Jacquet is coming for debut

Giovanni Leoni - meanwhile - is working his way back to fitness following a disastrous ACL injury suffered on debut last season.

The Italian, 19, is not yet ready for match action and supporters of the Merseyside club will have to wait before catching another glimpse of the £26m signing from Parma.

Sporting director Richard Hughes spent £60m on Jeremy Jacquet during the winter transfer window - with the Frenchman remaining at Rennes until the end of the season.

The 21-year-old suffered a shoulder injury just one week after inking his deal with the Anfield club - missing the rest of the French Ligue 1 campaign.

£60m Jacquet can save Liverpool at centre-back

He required surgery and is only just returning to full fitness. But happily for Iraola it looks like Jacquet will be available to relieve the centre-back burden soon.

BBC Sport is reporting that the France under-21 international is in line for his Liverpool debut on Sunday when the Reds take on Leeds in the third match of their preseason tour.

“Jacquet [is] in line to make his debut against Leeds on Sunday,” the report reads.

Jacquet is not expected to start Wednesday night’s game against Wrexham and it remains to be seen how Iraola solves that conundrum in the meantime.

Liverpool need all the help they can get at centre-back - particularly since Ibraima Konate joined Real Madrid on a free.

Hopefully Jacquet will be the man to step in and provide assurance at a time of great need.