Liverpool explain veteran keeper Lonergan joining touring squad

Veteran keeper Andy Lonergan has joined Liverpool’s tour of the United States and John Achterberg has explained the situation.

Lonergan, who has played more than 400 career games, has been invited to America with the Liverpool squad to act as a training goalkeeper.

The 35-year-old will provide cover for senior keeper Simon Mignolet with Alisson Becker on holiday, Caoimhin Kelleher  recovering from wrist surgery, Vitezslav Jaros sidelined with an elbow problem and Kamil Grabara loaned to Huddersfield.

Mignolet was replaced by 18-year-old Dan Atherton in the second half of the Reds’ 3-1 friendly win over Bradford City on Sunday, but Liverpool’s goalkeeping cover is light with only 16-year-old Jakub Ojrzynski include din the touring party alongside Mignolet and Atherton.

“We do this because obviously we are really light in the goalkeeping area,” first-team goalkeeping coach Achterberg told Liverpoolfc.com.

“Ali is on holiday, Kamil is going out on loan to Huddersfield, Caoimhin has an injury, so that leaves us only with Si really and one young boy, Dan Atherton. We need some cover in training so we thought we’d bring someone in who can help us [so we] don’t overload the goalkeepers in training.

“Basically we’re bringing him in for training and we can try to help him get fit and we’ll see how it goes from there. It’s like he helps us and we help him to get fit.

“It’s always good to have an experienced goalie to be able to talk to, for the young ones to talk about his experience and stuff. That’s always good.

“We just hope that he can help us over the next few weeks and we can help him to try to get to a reasonable fitness level and then we’ll take it from there.”