Dominic Solanke was spotted boarded the plane on Monday morning taking the Liverpool players to Belgrade for their Champions League fixture against Red Star.
The striker has failed to make a single Premier League squad this season after slipping down the pecking order following the signings of Xherdan Shaqiri, Naby Keita and Fabinho, and the renaissance of Daniel Sturridge.
But Solanke was seen behind the likes of first team regulars Mohamed Salah, Adam Lallana, James Milner and Georginio Wijnaldum boarding the plane heading to Serbia for Tuesday night’s clash.
Belgrade bound.
? #UCL pic.twitter.com/k1eE5mimVt
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 5, 2018
OPINION
It has been a difficult campaign for Solanke, whose senior match action three months into the season has yet to amount to a single minute. Indeed, he’s failed to make even the substitute’s bench for the 13 Premier League and Champions League fixtures, only getting the matchday squad call-up for the League Cup defeat to Chelsea. The 21-year-old has not got a look-in as Jurgen Klopp has used rejuvenated Sturridge and new boy Shaqiri as the back-up to senior trio Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane. It’s been on tough for Solanke, who was also overlooked in favour of Divock Origi, another rarely-seen striker, for Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Arsenal. The England Under-21 international is highly rated by Klopp, but the manager has stuck with his first choices for much of a campaign in which the standard in the Premier League has rarely been higher. Given the intensity of the competition and the quality of rivals such as Manchester City, Liverpool can ill afford to experiment or field anything other than their strongest available side. Even rotation has not yet come into play, although that could change against Champions League whipping boys Red Star Belgrade.