Arne Slot has revealed why he omitted Federico Chiesa from the matchday squad against West Ham United, with the Liverpool boss citing a need for extra training sessions in order for the player to work on his fitness.

Chiesa hasn’t played a Premier League match since September and missed the guts of three months due to a muscular injury. The Italian returned to the Liverpool squad for the Premier League draw against Fulham on 14 December and played 45 minutes in a Carabao Cup win over Southampton four days later.

But Chiesa has only been named in one of the three matchday squads since and missed the trip to Tottenham Hotspur last week before he was omitted once again for the 5-0 win over West Ham United on Sunday. Slot opted to select youngster Jayden Danns in his place and was asked after the game why Chiesa did not travel to the capital.

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“With Federico, I’ve said it many times already, we are working on two things,” he replied. “We are working on his match fitness and whenever we can we try to bring him with the team.

“He was on the bench during the week and we thought it was better for him to have some extra training sessions instead of joining us. It’s the constant balance we have to find between getting him fitter and letting him join the team.”

Chiesa suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the 2021/22 season and has struggled to maintain fitness since, although he did play 33 Serie A games for Juventus last term. In fact, his injury record was seen as a pivotal factor in why Liverpool paid just $16.4m (£12.5m/€14.8m) for the player last summer.

The 27-year-old has made only one start for the Reds since his transfer in August, in addition to three further appearances off the bench.

But his absence wasn’t felt again on Sunday as Liverpool put in a resounding performance to beat West Ham. Goals from Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota helped the leaders extend its gap at the top to eight points with a game in hand.