Liverpool flop Naby Keita 'missed important medical appointment after misunderstanding English instructions'

Liverpool’s outgoing midfielder Naby Keita once missed a medical appointment after misunderstanding English instructions.

Keita joins James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Roberto Firmino in leaving Liverpool at the end of the season, upon the expiry of their respective contracts.

But for the Guinea international it has been an underwhelming five-year stint on Merseyside, blighted by injuries and middling form.

Liverpool beat Barcelona and Bayern Munich to the signing of Keita back in 2018, after the player’s impressive 2016/17 Bundesliga campaign with RB Leipzig in which he’d scored eight goals and contributed eight assists in 31 league appearances.

The Reds went on to play a then-club record £52.75million fee for Keita, who was presented by Steven Gerrard with the No.8 shirt and described by Jurgen Klopp as a “complete midfielder” upon arriving.

However, his stint at Anfield was largely disappointing and he now leaves Merseyside on a free, hoping to rebuild his career elsewhere.

Naby Keita misunderstanding

According to the Athletic, Keita found it difficult to settle on Merseyside after arriving with his younger brother Petit.

However, there is allegedly a sense at the club that he could have been more proactive when it came to learning English. His language skills are said to have had an impact on Keita’s ability to understand what Klopp and Pep Lijnders demanded from him tactically.

Moreover, they led to several misunderstandings around Melwood.

The Athletic detailed an occasion when medical staff were chasing up scan results only to learn Keita had not been scanned at all.

The player had allegedly misunderstood the instructions he had been given, and a staff member was required to return to the private hospital with him.

There was another occasion in early 2020 when Sadio Mane was having breakfast with Keita when one of the staff came over to inform the latter they were going to step up his rehab that morning with a jog on the training pitch.

Much to Mane’s amusement, Keita replied: “Yeah, yeah, I like eggs.”

Topics: Football, Transfers, Premier League, Naby Keita, Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.