Liverpool could be ready to promote Rafael Camacho into their first team in the coming weeks – as an emergency right-back, according to the Echo.
The regional newspaper claim the Merseyside giants are ready to give a shock chance to the 18-year-old attacking midfielder, who scored 14 goals for the club’s junior sides last season.
The Echo report that Camacho has become an intriguing option for Jurgen Klopp as he looks to replace injured duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez at right-back over the coming weeks.
OPINION
It would certainly be a bolt out of the blue if Camacho were to be fast-tracked into the senior XI. The academy product, who switched from Manchester City in 2015, has yet to make his first-team bow, although he did make the matchday squad for the recent 3-1 win at Burnley. That demonstrates how highly Jurgen Klopp thinks of the teenager, who observed that Camacho is full of “football joy” after his promotion to the senior set-up for the pre-season tour of the USA. The Liverpool boss is not averse to left-field moves, or to promoting youthful talent. What is especially intriguing about Camacho is that he is an attacking player who has predominantly been used to create and score goals for the Liverpool Under-18s and Under-23s sides. In 14 matches this season, the rising star from Portugal has scored six goals and supplied seven assists. Like Alexander-Arnold before him, could Camacho now be pushed back into a defensive role in order to shoehorn him into the senior side.