Federico Chiesa was selected to start for Liverpool U21s against FC Nordsjaelland, marking his first appearance at any level in more than two months.
Chiesa’s last appearance was against West Ham three days prior, and he hasn’t played since an evening on September 28 when he was an unused substitute in the 2-1 victory at Wolves.
Since then, the Italian winger has missed time due to a variety of fitness concerns, and Arne Slot and his medical team are being cautious not to put him at risk of getting hurt again.
However, Chiesa has been selected for the Liverpool U21s team to play Nordsjaelland on Wednesday night after returning to full training in recent weeks.
Chiesa will not be traveling with the first team for the young Reds’ Premier League match against Newcastle, which kicks off at 7 p.m. at the AXA Training Centre against its Danish opponents.
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With every safeguard in place, Chiesa’s minutes will probably be predetermined, possibly even including preparations to replace him at halftime.
After coming off the bench against Reading U21s over the weekend, Jayden Danns also earns his first start of the season in the Premier League International Cup match.
Chiesa, who was frozen out by his last club, arrived short of fitness after being signed by Juventus for £12.5 million at the close of the summer transfer window.
Liverpool has chosen to put the 27-year-old through a rigorous individual training regimen to ensure he is fully healthy after being excluded from preseason training and any warmup friendlies with the Juventus first team.