Former Liverpool midfielder Gini Wijnaldum knew exactly who to call when Jose Mourinho and Roma came knocking at the door.
“I wanted to come because of the effort the club made to sign me and because I spoke to Mo Salah about the club and the city and I only heard good stories about it,” said the Dutchman earlier this week when explaining the move.
It was, of course, at Roma that Salah produced the consistent standard of performance that prompted Jurgen Klopp to rubber-stamp his Liverpool arrival in the summer of 2017. Wijnaldum, having bent the ear of his former team-mate and a few other old colleagues, has agreed to spend the season in the Italian capital on loan from Paris Saint-Germain.
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But Salah and Wijnaldum have more in common than regarding both Anfield and the Stadio Olimpico as home. And it's an attribute that is causing Reds boss Klopp considerable angst during the opening stages of another hectic campaign.
Durability. Players can have all the talent in the world, but if they aren't fit to play, then it is worthless.
That has been brought into sharp focus with Klopp having to grapple with an increasingly lengthy injury list, not least in midfield where Thiago Alcantara, Curtis Jones and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are out for the foreseeable. With a hectic schedule approaching before the next international break in late September, the setbacks couldn't have been more untimely.
Wijnaldum was a reliably regular presence in the Liverpool midfield during his five years at the club. He featured in all bar two games in every competition in the Reds' injury-ravaged 2020/21 season ahead of his move to PSG and, in total, was absent from the matchday squad for only eight Premier League games throughout his Anfield career. Even during a difficult last term in France, he was only missing for five matches.
The contrast with Klopp's present midfield options is, in some instances, worryingly pronounced, even if several were simply extremely unfortunate.
Last season, Thiago missed six weeks early on with a calf complaint and then a month over Christmas with a hip issue. Shortly after signing weeks into the previous campaign, his full debut ended with a knee injury sustained in a challenge with then Everton striker Richarlison that kept him out for almost two months.
Fabinho and Jordan Henderson were largely available during 2021/22. Fabinho missed two Premier League games in October with a knee problem and then the final two games with a thigh issue that also kept him out of the FA Cup final. The Brazilian had much lengthier spells out in each of the previous two campaigns.
Henderson was absent for only three league games last term, one of which was due to illness. It was a vast improvement on his previous two seasons which were prematurely ended by knee and then groin issues.
For all the regular setbacks in his first few years, there was a reason Naby Keita made his most appearances in a season for Liverpool last term. He missed seven games with a hamstring complaint in the autumn but only one further match due to a knee problem. However, he of course sat out this season's opener at Fulham through illness.
James Milner's hamstrings kept him out for a month in each of the last two seasons while he missed almost a third of the 2019/20 title-winning campaign with various problems. Oxlade-Chamberlain may have a reputation for being injury-prone but he missed only one game last season due to fitness issues, compared to the season before when absent for the first three months with a knee complaint.
Jones missed the start of last season with concussion then suffered a freak eye injury that cost him two months just at the moment he had nailed down a regular first-team role. The previous campaign he'd been in the matchday squad for all bar three games. And Harvey Elliott, having played every available game during a season-long loan at Championship side Blackburn Rovers, last term had five months out with a broken ankle.
And what of Salah? The Egyptian missed only one Premier League game last season through injury, one the previous season due to coronavirus, one in 2019/20 with an ankle complaint, and two in 2017/18 when rested. That's it.
Injuries are, of course, part and parcel of football, with the intensity of both the Premier League and Liverpool's style of play placing significant onus on the club's fitness and conditioning teams to keep players out of the treatment room. The engine room perhaps feels that more than most although sometimes, as demonstrated above, setbacks simply cannot be avoided.
Liverpool and Wijnaldum have long moved on since their successful time together. But the Dutchman remains an example to his former club in one largely overlooked respect. Henderson and Fabinho were able to deliver last term, but Klopp knows the more midfielders that can offer similar continuity the better..
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