Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konaté has revealed that one of the club’s summer arrivals once flat-out refused to join a scheduled gym session after training.
Arne Slot’s side have endured a difficult start to their Premier League title defence, with the Reds sitting eighth after six wins and five defeats from their first 11 games — including damaging losses to Manchester United at Anfield and Manchester City at the Etihad.
New signings Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez have yet to deliver the expected spark, while Hugo Ekitike has been the brightest of the bunch with six goals and an assist in 16 games since his £79m switch from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Still, doubts linger over the forward’s maturity. His red card against Southampton in the Carabao Cup — earned after he removed his shirt while celebrating a goal and received a second yellow — caused him to miss Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Crystal Palace.
Ekitike is now focused on France’s World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan. He scored in Thursday’s 4-0 win over Ukraine, and with Kylian Mbappé out injured, he’s expected to feature again on Sunday.
However, he might not be thrilled with Konaté’s recent comments. The centre-back admitted that earlier this season, Ekitike “didn’t want to” follow through with a mandatory gym session.
“I pushed him when he arrived in Liverpool because the intensity here is very different from the Bundesliga,” Konaté told RMC. “He was a bit tired after training. One day we were supposed to go to the gym and he refused. I looked at him and said: ‘Do you still want to be called up for France?’ Two minutes later he was in the gym,” he laughed.
“He’s grown a lot since then. I was really happy for him after his goal against Ukraine. He went through tough moments at PSG and took a lot of criticism.”
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