No chances taken: Liverpool forward ‘pulled out of training’ after he ‘felt something’

Liverpool under-21 head coach Rob Page has explained why Jayden Danns played no part for his side in the Jersey Mike’s Trophy defeat to Doncaster on Tuesday night.

The young Reds were beaten 1-0 by the League One outfit in south Yorkshire, leaving them with two points from as many matches going into their final group fixture against Huddersfield.

The 20-year-old has featured in five matches for the under-21s so far this term, most recently against Rochdale in the Jersey Mike’s Trophy a fortnight ago (Transfermarkt).

Page taking no chances with Danns’ fitness

Speaking to liverpoolfc.com after the loss to Doncaster, Page explained that he opted against selecting Danns as he thought it best not to risk aggravating a minor knock that the youngster sustained in training.

The Liverpool under-21 boss said: “He pulled out of training last week. He just felt something and wasn’t quite comfortable. We’re not going to take any chances; there’s no need at all.

“He’s trained. He’s been training but we didn’t think it was a risk we wanted to take. He’s fit, he’s training and we thought it was better for him to have two training days than to come and have half an hour, 45 minutes in this game.”

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Danns has time to recover before Liverpool U21s’ next match

Considering the injury problems that Danns has suffered over the past couple of years, it was sensible by Page not to take any unnecessary risks with the striker, especially in a match against seasoned senior professionals.

The under-21s don’t play again until Saturday week when they host Reading in Premier League 2, so that 10-day preparation period should see the youngster get valuable training time to build up his fitness and hopefully have shaken off the issue which precluded him from featuring last night.

It’s a shame for the 20-year-old that he’s had so many injury setbacks in the past few months, thus preventing him from gaining the necessary momentum to break into first-team contention once more.

In fact, it’s now been more than a year since his last senior appearance, which came in the Carabao Cup win over Southampton in September 2025, a game which is sadly remembered mostly for Giovanni Leoni’s horrific ACL rupture.

Hopefully the injury problems which have impeded Danns’ progress will soon become a thing of the past and he can get back to the hugely promising levels that he showed upon breaking into the first team in the spring of 2024.