Florian Wirtz completed his medical on Friday to become the most expensive Liverpool player of all time
Wirtz during his Liverpool medical (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
For those who still remember the name Nabil Fekir, only when Florian Wirtz's medical had been passed and he was confirmed as a Liverpool player were they allowing themselves to get excited.
But having sailed through the medical examinations on Friday with no issues, Wirtz is now, officially, the most expensive player of all time at Anfield. The Premier League champions will pay an initial £100m for the Germany international with £16m worth of bolt-ons potentially making the 22-year-old a British transfer record.
It's insisted Wirtz would have to be a spectacular success to reach those lofty heights, but that is the desired outcome for all concerned after a statement signing that only strengthens a squad that cantered to the title by 10 points, despite not winning any of their final four games.
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Some of the apprehension for those who were still remembering how the £50m deal for Fekir dramatically collapsed in the summer of 2018 centred around a serious knee injury sustained by Wirtz back in March of 2022 at Leverkusen.
Against his former club Koln, in the Rhineland derby, Wirtz lost his balance shortly before the half-hour mark while dribbling against defender Luca Kilian, twisting his left knee in the process.
An MRI scan was performed almost immediately after Wirtz's withdrawal by Leverkusen before it was confirmed that the attacking midfielder had torn the anterior cruciate ligament. It was a cruel bit of luck for the then 18-year-old but misfortune was all it was.
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Wirtz missed 272 days in total, eventually returning in December 2022 while his international colleagues toiled at the Qatar World Cup.
After months of arduous rehabilitation, Wirtz was deemed to be fit enough to accompany the rest of the Leverkusen squad on a mid-season trip to the United States in November of that year, although he played no part in a friendly win over MLS side St Louis City.
He did, though, return to feature for around half an hour of a 3-0 defeat to Rangers a few days later. "He's like a fantastic new signing for us," former boss Xabi Alonso said at the time. "With Flo, we’re a better team and I’m also a better coach."
"I'm exhausted," Wirtz said after his comeback. "I'm not used to the tempo after being out for nine months. All in all it was a disappointing game from us, which is why I'm not in the best of moods right now. But I think that will change later in the day, once the penny drops how important this day was for me.
"Because it was so cold here, my lungs hurt," he continued. "My fitness level is actually pretty good, but there were a lot of emotions involved today. It was more difficult mentally, which then affects your body. I could feel that today.
“Each time I got the ball, I felt there was something I still need to work on, to recover that feeling for receiving the ball and playing it first time. I made a few mistakes.”
Initially, there had been some hope and a determination from Wirtz himself to feature in Qatar, given the mid-season competition in the Middle East was still around nine months away.
Wisely, though, he stopped short of declaring himself ready to go all out in an effort to make the Germany squad, saying: "My big goal after the injury was simply to be 100% fit again. That's still the case. I have to keep concentrating on getting 100% fit. All that matters now is to take the next steps in training."
Alonso, who was appointed while Wirtz was recovering, kept such a close eye on his player's recovery that he was more than happy to report for work at the club's training base on days off during the World Cup to see how the progress was coming along, even getting involved in the five-a-side matches at the Performance Centre to gauge exactly what he had on his hands in the gifted Wirtz.
Alonso was said to have been so struck by Wirtz that he made the creative midfielder the centrepiece of his plans and less than two years later die Werkself had gone an entire Bundesliga season unbeaten en route to their first ever league title to go alongside a German Cup. They were also beaten finalists in the Europa League.
Wirtz was absent for 43 games in total during that 2022 recovery process but any concerns they would lead to further issues down the road, as occasionally happens for certain players, has been put to bed by the injury history of the Reds' new man since.
An inner ligament injury saw him miss a month between early March and April of last season but that is the only problem picked up since the long-term setback where he missed more than one game, according to Transfermarkt's figures.
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And with Arne Slot and his staff managing to keep the squad largely healthy for most of last season playing a big part in the success that was enjoyed, there should be genuine optimism that Wirtz will become a mainstay of the team for years to come.