Midfielder joins Liverpool first-team with immediate effect

Liverpool welcome a midfielder into their first-team for the rest of the season.

Liverpool have battled injuries all season long, depleting their squad and Arne Slot's options. Just recently, both Wataru Endo and Florian Wirtz dropped out of matches with injuries.

Conor Bradley is out for the season, as is Giovanni Leoni. Alexander Isak will hopefully return before the campaign is over but he's unlikely to play all that much.

It's been difficult, then. Slot has constantly had to find new options and play certain stars out of position. The recent injury to Endo robs him of a player long-term - someone who was capable of playing three different roles.

More importantly, he was an option to sit in front of the defence. Liverpool don't have too many of those but thankfully one player has joined the squad who can play that role.

James McConnell returns

James McConnell has returned from his loan spell at Ajax - one cut short thanks to an injury. He's back training, however, and will feature for Liverpool's Under 21s before the season is out at the very least.

But per Jack Lusby, he's also with the first-team. McConnell, as an Under 21 player, doesn't need to be registered to play in the Premier League this season, allowing him to be a part of the squad.

He immediately becomes a last-resort option for Slot, much as he was last season.

McConnell was supposed to go to Ajax this season and have a breakout campaign under Johnny Heitinga. That entire experiement collapsed into pieces, however, as Heitinga was sacked and the midfielder barely played.

So we'll see if he fares any better back on home turf. McConnell has certainly impressed at a senior level before and we know the club rates him.

Whether he'll get some minutes, though, is anyone's guess.

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