Liverpool have cancelled a press conference on the eve of Wednesday’s Champions League encounter with Eintracht Frankfurt at the last minute.
Arne Slot and member of the Reds’ squad, expected to be midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, were due to speak to the media at Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park from 6:30pm BST on Tuesday evening to preview the team’s third European match of the campaign.
It is set to be an important match for the defending Premier League champions, who are looking to get their season back on track by ending a four-game losing streak in all competitions.
But in a disruption to Liverpool’s preparations, the club released a statement shortly before 6pm to announce that the pre-match briefing “will now not be able to take place”.
The reason given was “a delay in the Reds squad's scheduled flight out to Frankfurt, due to technical issues with the aircraft”.
According to local media, the squad were still at Liverpool John Lennon Airport as of the scheduled press conference time. Reporters in Germany, meanwhile, had already arrived at Frankfurt’s stadium.
By 7:05pm BST, journalist James Pearce of The Athletic posted on X that the team’s plane had been given the green light to take off from the airport in Liverpool after a delay of “around three hours”.
“[It] means LFC squad will be able to land in Frankfurt tonight - local airport shuts at 10pm UK time,” he added.
The flight eventually took off shortly after 7:40pm, the Liverpool Echo reported.
The lack of a press conference meant an update on the fitness of Ryan Gravenberch - who was withdrawn early in the second half of Sunday’s shock home loss to Manchester United with an ankle injury and subsequently missed Liverpool’s open training session on Tuesday - was instead delivered by the Reds’ manager via an interview on the club’s official website.
Ruling the Dutch midfielder out of Wednesday’s match, Slot said Gravenberch will “hopefully be available at the weekend”, when Liverpool travel to Brentford in the Premier League for an 8pm BST kick-off on Saturday.
But he added: “It’s an ankle injury, we have to wait and see, give him a bit of time and see where he is when we come back from Frankfurt.”
One player who was involved in Tuesday’s training session was Wataru Endo, whose return from injury offers a boost to the Reds’ midfield options.
First-choice goalkeeper Alisson misses out on Wednesday’s match as he recovers from a hamstring injury, meaning there’ll be another start for Giorgi Mamardashvili, while Alexis Mac Allister has been declared fit to travel despite taking a blow to the head against United at the weekend.
Liverpool announced their travelling squad - which can be found in full here - later on Tuesday evening.
Separately, Slot insisted that the team’s travel disruption “will not impact the build-up” to their latest Champions League match.
“Normally we would have gone to Frankfurt a few hours earlier, now we are a few hours later,” he continued. “But, no, that can never be an excuse for the game tomorrow."
