Ibou Konate was brought off at half time against Liverpool and whilst his teammates played against Wolves, he was elsewhere.
Brought off as protection from being awarded a second yellow card in the match, it was clear that it wasn’t a fitness related issue by what the defender shared on social media.
Taking to his Instagram stories, we can see our No.5 was still in his full kit from the game and weight training with a coach in what appeared to be the underbelly of Anfield.
It shows perhaps that this poor discipline was not rewarded with sitting on the bench and instead the Frenchman was asked to do some gym work after missing out on a second 45 minutes.
You can see from the clock in the video that the time was around 3:15 pm which was roughly when Diogo Jota won the Reds a second penalty, before the decision was correctly overturned.
Ibou Konate was asked to do gym work rather than play the second 45
We saw from the 25-year-old’s interaction with Matheus Cunha on the way off the pitch after the half time whistle sounded, that he clearly didn’t think he should have seen red.
Arne Slot may have had different opinions or at least didn’t want to risk the centre back having to miss any of the upcoming matches against Aston Villa, Manchester City and Newcastle United.
Given his own fitness struggles too, a rest for half of the game will likely aid his chances of playing more football in the coming weeks.
Refusing to rule out a move to Real Madrid of late may have worried some fans but we can at least be happy that he’s part of our title efforts in this campaign.
You can watch the video of Konate via his Instagram account or @KonateFC on X:
After his clean sheet against Wolves Ibrahima Konaté does gym work in his match kit calling it “second half” 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/iKRwevQk3N
— 𝗞𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗙𝗖 (@KonateFC) February 16, 2025
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