Fabrizio Romano has now confirmed that Federico Chiesa pulled out of Italy’s squad after failing to pass a fitness check.
The Liverpool forward last appeared in competitive action for the Italian national team in the summer of 2024 for the Euros.
However, this can surely only be considered a damning indictment of the Reds’ current intensity levels in team training.
Until further updates clarify whether or not the Italian is carrying an injury, it’s hard to come to any conclusion other than that Chiesa’s fitness levels are directly linked to Liverpool’s lackadaisical approach to training.
Fabrizio Romano shared the update in question on X (formerly Twitter), specifically highlighting that medical checks failed to clear the 28-year-old for international duty on fitness grounds.
🚨❌ Federico Chiesa has withdrawn from Italy squad after medical checks confirmed he isn’t fit to play.
In agreement with his club, the Liverpool forward has left the camp and Bologna striker Cambiaghi replaces Federico. pic.twitter.com/WW1ZwBj2I7
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 23, 2026
The former Juventus man had featured briefly for Arne Slot’s men, with another late cameo appearance against Brighton as the Merseysiders chased a result at the Amex at the weekend.
Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust
To be completely fair to the Dutchman and his coaching staff, the right-sided winger has barely played in competitive action, so this, perhaps, may be the most significant contributing factor behind his fitness issues.
* Federico Chiesa’s minutes for Liverpool (across all competitions) in the 2025/26 season
But how on earth can Federico Chiesa be expected to help Liverpool equalise or win games late on if he’s not even fit enough to file out for his country?
We were told that Slot and his coaching staff’s excellent load management would help reduce injuries at Anfield after taking over from Jurgen Klopp in the summer of 2024.
The Reds certainly appeared to benefit from higher availability last term. However, we’re growing increasingly concerned about reports that Liverpool’s training intensity has dropped.
That’s to be expected, due in no small part to the mad fixture schedule. Indeed, Arne Slot admitted (via the Liverpool Echo), as far as training was concerned, post-Galatasaray: “Training wise, [we do] close to nothing.
“Yesterday (Thursday) the players did recovery. The most important thing is recovery, we cannot train in a way that we can learn something to help us to win the game on Saturday.
“We have to focus completely on recovery. The two things most important to that are sleep and food. We try to make sure they get enough sleep, we get into bed late on Wednesday evening.
“Every athlete will tell you after a game like this it’s not easy to fall asleep straight away. That’s why we train later on Thursday morning, we report later today.
“Hopefully they have two days with eight to nine hours of sleep. Then we go into a hotel tonight to make sure we don’t have to go that early tomorrow, so they have proper sleep.
“We try to do that in the best possible way. Yesterday we had a meeting about why we played well, what we have to do and also telling them how important recovery is. Today we will probably be 15-20 minutes on the pitch.”
That’s all well and good, but it’s not a particularly good look when someone as experienced as Virgil van Dijk is coming out with this post-Brighton (via the Echo):
“It is the situation. I was also surprised when I was on the training pitch yesterday (Friday), and I only saw the amount of players that I saw, but that is the situation. So yes, it is tough.
“Listen, I don’t know what to say – I said over the last months the same thing. We can’t build on a good performance. That is something that has to change if we are to achieve what we are trying to achieve, and that is Champions League football.
“We are trying everything. We are trying to turn it around and we are hopefully going to turn a corner, but it doesn’t look that way at the moment. Obviously we go away now to our different countries. Everyone has a responsibility to stay as fit as everyone can and come back ever better if that is possible.”
This doesn’t seem to fall within normal load-management levels.
And given Liverpool are in desperate need of solutions to correct their domestic slump, it’s farcical that the club’s training intensity has apparently collapsed.
Are we gambling it all on the Champions League? What’s the grand plan if PSG knock Liverpool in the quarter-finals (an outcome entirely within the realms of possibility)?
We can talk all day about mitigating factors, but it feels like we’re not doing enough to counter our struggles on the pitch.
Welcome to our Live Comments section, where new comments will appear automatically
You have to feel sympathy for Chiesa, almost ignored by Slot, expected to come on and save games in the final minutes and now unfit. Slot has had it in my opinion.
Heading and contents do not really tally. What has chiesa’s injury got to do with the end of arne slot? I agree with you the coaching team or the physio team is not really doing a good job in keeping our players fit. Less intensity but more injuries. Think about it.
Literally our problem. Every team is outrunning us. The levels of fitness have lapsed since Klopp left 100%. Milner would be the fittest player at Liverpool still….
Slot is the worst so called manager in the history of the club, this completely useless moron doesn’t hats clue about the game ( fact is all Dutch managers are absolutely rubbish and they don’t know the basic mechanics of the rules and how to train players properly and worse of all they don’t give a toss when the heat is on them, they use extreme excuses after excuses for their so stupid incompetence at the highest levels of management!
A bit like Ten Hag another Dutch manager.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
