Inside Jarell Quansah's incredible rise from Liverpool breakthrough to England squad

Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah is set to cap a remarkable season with a place in the England squad. Quansah only made his Reds debut in August but has enjoyed a meteoric rise at Anfield.

Gareth Southgate is reported to have named Quansah in his provisional squad for the European Championships and he will now get a chance to stake a claim to be in the final list for the tournament. England has well-known issues in defense, particularly at center-half, with Harry Maguire missing large chunks of the season through injury. John Stones, who is Southgate's other first-choice option, has also been struggling with injuries.

It remains to be seen if Quansah can do enough to make the final squad but his inclusion is recognition for a quite incredible 12 months, with the defender playing in the third-tier a year ago.

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Here is how he has gone from being a League One loanee to an England hopeful in rapid time.

Pre-season emergence

Quansah had spent the second half of last season on loan at Bristol Rovers in League One and caught the eye with some excellent performances. Boss Joey Barton lavished praise on him, and even suggested he could one day play for England.

Quansah returned to Liverpool for pre-season as featured in all five friendlies for Liverpool. Klopp even revealed his emergence ended plans to sign a new central defender.

He said: "We got asked a lot about signing a centre-half and we were thinking about that as well, it’s not that we ignore potential issues or whatever. When we saw him it was clear that we will not go for it, that we will have our own solution."

Dramatic debut vs Newcastle

The defender made his debut as a substitute in the dramatic win over Newcastle back in August. Virgil van Dijk had already been sent off and Quansah replaced Joël Matip for the final 15 minutes as Liverpool scored twice through Darwin Núñez.

He got his first start against Wolves in September and was a regular through Liverpool's early Europa League and Carabao Cup matches, scoring his first goal in the defeat to Union Saint-Gilloise in December.

Capitalizing on Joël Matip injury

Liverpool was dealt a hammer blow in December when Matip suffered an ACL injury in the win over Fulham at Anfield. The issue ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign but saw Quansah get more opportunities, particularly in the Premier League.

He was often rotated with Ibrahima Konaté as Virgil van Dijk's partner and admitted he had been eyeing Matip's place in the squad, with his contract up this summer. Quansah told TNT Sports: "It's a shame what happened to Joël and my condolences go with him.

"My idea was to try and get over him anyway and try to be a starting center-back in the Premier League at the end of the day. I'm just trying and any opportunity, hopefully more come, I am just trying to really push on and be the best centre-back I can be."

Virgil van Dijk praise

Such was the level of Quansah's performances, he was even dubbed 'Virgil 2.0' by his manager. Quansah admitted the comparison was a 'massive compliment' but his defensive partner has been equally as impressed.

Quansah was excellent in the draw with Manchester City against Erling Haaland and Van Dijk said afterwards: "Jarell has dealt outstandingly well with every challenge that’s come his way so far. Every challenge that was thrown his way he dealt with.

"The sky is the limit, so he just has to stay humble and keep working hard and keep improving because there will be a lot of bumps along the road."

Ending the season on a high

Quansah enjoyed a fine end to the campaign and started in Liverpool's last four matches. Konaté found himself out of the side after the Merseyside derby defeat and the 21-year-old made the most of his opportunity.

He scored his first Premier League goal in the draw with Aston Villa with his impressive header seeing Jamie Carragher draw comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo. Quansah was again on target in the final day win over Wolves in Klopp's final match in charge.