Luis Diaz accompanied his soon-to-be former Liverpool team-mates to Ekoin Temple in Japan on the second leg of their Asia tour, despite the Reds agreeing a £65.5million deal with Bayern Munich for his sale.
The Colombian was omitted from the Premier League champion’s pre-season clash against AC Milan on Saturday as his move to Bavaria drew closer.
Diaz, who joined Liverpool from Porto in January 2022, was reportedly given permission to undergo his medical by the Anfield club following the agreement with Bayern.
However, on Monday morning UK time, he was pictured with the Liverpool squad as they stopped by the 1,000-year old Buddhist temple. It has since been revealed by Fabrizio Romano that the winger is due to arrive in Munich on Monday ahead of his medical the following day.
Liverpool rejected Bayern’s initial advances and an offer around £58.5m insisting Diaz was not for sale, but the Germans returned with a second offer of £65.5m including add-ons.
Liverpool made two separate attempts to agree a contract extension but failed to find accord as there was too big a gap between offers and demands.
The Liverpool squad visited the 1,000-year-old Ekoin Temple in japan at the start of the second leg of their Asia tour
Luis Diaz (middle) was pictured with his soon-to-be former team-mates at the temple on Monday morning
Diaz (pictured, second from left) did not feature for Arne Slot’s side during pre-season
Bayern, managed by Vincent Kompany, held long-term interest in Colombian ace Diaz
Throughout the summer, Liverpool had been unwilling to sell but Diaz and his representatives pushed for a move. He first signalled a wish to leave in the summer of 2024, but the club held firm.
On Saturday, manager Arne Slot confirmed that Diaz was left out of the squad to face AC Milan due to speculation surrounding his future, while Darwin Nunez missed out due to injury.
‘One of the positions that we didn’t have was a No 9,’ Slot told LFC TV after the 4-2 defeat.
‘We had one, Hugo [Ekitike], but he wasn’t ready to play yet. Darwin was injured. Lucho [Luis Diaz] couldn’t play as well. In Lucho’s situation it was, yeah [the reason why he was left out].
‘There’s a lot of rumours around him lately and I cannot go into that. He’s training well with us but we have decided, for now, not to play him yet.
‘I’m used to talking to most of my players on a regular basis. Like I said, Lucho is training really well and we’ve decided that he’s not playing at the moment in the games. I cannot comment much more about that.’
Liverpool retain an interest in Newcastle Alexander Isak while they also plan to add a centre back with Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace and Chelsea target Jorrel Hato, of Ajax, among names on their list.
