Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo of Liverpool inspect the pitch prior to the Pre-Season Friendly between Liverpool FC and AC Milan at Kai Tak Sports Park on July 26, 2025 in Hong Kong, China. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)placeholder image
Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo of Liverpool inspect the pitch prior to the Pre-Season Friendly between Liverpool FC and AC Milan at Kai Tak Sports Park on July 26, 2025 in Hong Kong, China. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images) | Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Liverpool team news ahead of the Premier League fixture against Burnley at Turf Moor.
Arne Slot has given an update on Alexander Isak’s fitness after his transfer deadline-day arrival at Liverpool.
The striker completed his switch to Anfield from Newcastle United for a British record fee of £125 million. It brought the end to a protracted saga that rumbled on for more than a month. Isak, who scored 27 goals last season, told the Magpies that he wanted to join the Premier League champions. As a result, Isak underwent individual training and did not feature in Newcastle’s opening three games of the 2025-26 Premier League season.
Isak came off the bench for 18 minutes in Sweden’s 2-0 loss against Kosovo earlier this week. He has now commenced his Liverpool career after reporting for duty on Wednesday. The Reds return to action after the international break when travelling to Burnley on Sunday. But Slot has suggested that Isak won’t be ready to start the encounter.
What’s been said
Head coach Slot said: “A lot of things happened on the last day, which is not always the situation. The thing that pleased me most was getting Alex over the line. Richard, the ownership, worked so hard to get the deal done. It’s very good for the club, our fans and me.
“The Swedish manager deserves a big compliment because he gets one of, maybe the best striker in the world and needs to play two very important games for his country but understands the player would have been injured for multiple weeks. That’s not always easy for a manager, he takes the interest of the player and we will treat Alex the same.
“Don’t expect him to play 90 minutes every game. That is definitely not going to happen in the coming weeks. He missed a proper pre-season, 3-4 months of team sessions and we have to build him up gradually. With the upcoming games, it’s going to be a challenge but we have not signed him for the upcoming weeks but for six years. This is what we have to keep him mind and the fans keep in mind if I take him off or bring him in for a small amount of minutes.”
New Liverpool injury blow
Meanwhile. Curtis Jones has been ruled out of the Burnley game. The midfielder was not called up for England duty during the international break but sustained a problem in the 1-0 victory over Arsenal.
Jeremie Frimpong has been absent for Liverpool’s past two games with a hamstring problem, although he has returned to training so could be in contention to return.
Slot added: “Most of them [who were] not on the internationals trained this week with the under-21s. I don’t know if you knew but Curtis Jones got injured in the last game. He will not be available for the game against Burnley. But I think the rest of them came back without a problem. That is not always the situation at the beginning of the season so we are happy they are fit. Compliment to the managers because some like Ryan Gravenberch only started one game and not both of them.”
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