Luis Diaz was pictured running on the pitches at the AXA Training Centre on Thursday, but he is yet to return to full training.
A video shared on Football Daily‘s Twitter account generated plenty of excitement on Thursday afternoon, with Diaz seen jogging on the grass at Kirkby.
However, contrary to some social media posts from fan aggregator accounts on Twitter, the Colombian has not yet returned to training, and the fact he is running is not a new development.
? ? Luis Diaz continues his recovery from injury in Liverpool training today pic.twitter.com/Df3q3ipLfY
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) February 16, 2023
It was February 3, in his pre-Wolves press conference, when Jurgen Klopp revealed that Diaz was running again.
“Luis is running now,” he told reporters that day.
“That will take a few weeks still, but he’s now out running on the pitch as well, which is really good.”
Since then, Diaz has delivered an update of his own, and didn’t rule out the possibility of him making his comeback in the second leg of Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid in March.
So while it’s understandable that the sight of Diaz on the pitch has been met with excitement among supporters, it should be stressed that this is not a new development, with the 26-year-old likely to have been running for around two weeks now.
The next step in his rehabilitation is likely to be individual ball work, before he is able to join in with elements of team training.
Great to see you back out on the grass, @LuisFDiaz19 ????? pic.twitter.com/w0P98KA4WJ
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 16, 2023
On Wednesday Diaz was pictured working on his upper body strength in the gym, with an injury specialist from Porto flying in to assist with his recovery.
The 26-year-old first sustained a knee problem against Arsenal last October and was expected to be back in action after the World Cup, only to suffer a setback during Liverpool’s mid-season training camp in Dubai.
This Is Anfield understands the injury was a recurrence of LCL damage to his left knee.
