Bajcetic’s Return to the Grass Is the Quiet Story of Liverpool’s Chicago Trip
Pre season tours tend to get remembered for one thing and forgotten for the rest, but what happened in Chicago on Thursday deserves more attention than it will get. Stefan Bajcetic trained with the group again, and for a player whose last three years have been defined by fitness setbacks rather than football, that single detail carries more weight than any friendly result against Sunderland ever could.
Why this matters more than it looks
It is easy to skim past a line about a player returning to training when the club drip feeds these updates constantly through pre season. We would push back on that instinct here. Bajcetic has made only three Liverpool appearances since the adductor injury that ended his involvement in a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth back in March 2023. Three appearances in over three years is closer to a lost period of a career than a normal rehab story.
Loan spells at Red Bull Salzburg and Las Palmas gave him minutes without ever quite giving him continuity, though there were spells in Spain last year where the talent that first got Liverpool excited resurfaced. Nobody who has watched him doubts the profile, calm under pressure, clean through the lines, technically composed enough that coaches trust him in areas where most young midfielders panic. The issue has only ever been staying fit long enough to prove it consistently.
Endo’s recovery adds to the picture
Andoni Iraola also used Thursday’s session to confirm Wataru Endo is edging closer to full training. Where Bajcetic represents long term potential still waiting to be unlocked, Endo offers the kind of experienced control Iraola may lean on early in the season while others build up match sharpness. Having both players moving in the right direction at once gives the head coach a genuinely useful problem, more midfield options to assess rather than fewer.
Bajcetic had already been working outdoors at the AXA Training Centre earlier this month alongside Jeremy Jacquet, Harvey Elliott and James McConnell, so Thursday was not the first sign of progress. It was, however, the first time it happened inside a proper football setting on tour, with team mates and the pressure of an upcoming fixture rather than isolated conditioning work back home.
Our take
We would resist reading too much into one training session, since Bajcetic’s history means every step forward has previously been followed by a setback. But there is a difference between cautious optimism and ignoring good news altogether, and this is good news. Pre season exists to strip away noise and show coaches who is actually available, and for the first time in a while Bajcetic is part of that picture rather than a name mentioned alongside it. If Chicago passes without incident, Iraola heads into the season with a genuine extra option in central midfield, exactly what a squad chasing on multiple fronts needs.