As 11 members of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool senior prepare to reunite with their nations for September’s international break, we take a look at the players who will travel the furthest.
The Reds are in the middle of a 17-day gap between games, with the Premier League game against Chelsea scheduled for this weekend having been postponed.
When the players reunite after the break, they’ll be faced with a hectic calendar where they’ll play 13 games in six weeks before this year’s World Cup.
It is therefore imperative that Klopp has as many of his squads available as possible and the Liverpool boss will be anxious to see his players line up for their countries over the next fortnight.
Travel and airline miles are something he will also be aware of as Liverpool host Brighton on Saturday 1 October at 3pm (BST). Those on international duty will return in the days leading up to this game, some sooner than others.
One of the last returnees might be Luis Diazwho will meet Guatemala in New Jersey next Saturday and Mexico in California in the early hours of Tuesday, September 27 very early.
Mohamed Salah is the other player set to represent his country outside of Europe this month. His Egypt side meet Niger on Friday before hosting Liberia the following Tuesday. The kick-off time for the latter game is unclear but he too faces a long-haul flight back to Liverpool after the game.
Thankfully, the remaining nine players called up for international duty will be based in Europe, including Brazil and Uruguay’s Darwin Nunez.
Alisson, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino are all expected to make a short trip to France to play Ghana and Tunisia, saving Tite’s players a long flight back to South America.
Nunez will be based in Austria where Uruguay will meet Iran and then Slovakia in a friendly against Canada.
Elsewhere, Trent Alexander-Arnold will travel to Italy for England’s first Nations League encounter before Gareth Southgate’s side host Germany at Wembley. The same goes for Harvey Elliott as England’s Under-21 side meet the same nations.
Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk will travel to Poland and then his home country in September, Kostas Tsimikas to Cyprus and Greece and Diogo Jota to the Czech Republic and Portugal.
The only minor uncertainty is Naby Keita, who has been called up in Guinea’s squad for the games against Algeria and Côte d’Ivoire in Africa but will certainly not feature as he continues to recover from injury.
There are 16 players who have not been selected for international duty, including Nat Phillips, Fabio Carvalho and Arthur, who squandered valuable playing time in the Under-21s’ win against Leicester on Saturday.
