Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana cheekily joked he hoped teammates Divock Origi and Dejan Lovren enjoyed doing the lactate test on Tuesday.
The Reds attacking midfielder shared a picture of him smiling during pre-season training as he appeared to suggest that he was relieved that he wasn’t during the gruelling fitness test, unlike Origi and Lovren.
“That face you pull when you can see others doing the lactate test. Hope you enjoyed it @divockorigi @dejanlovren06,” wrote Lallana on his personal Instagram.
Origi and Lovren returned to Melwood later than some of their teammates, so only begun their pre-season training on Tuesday morning (Source: Liverpool’s official website), which meant they missed the club’s lactate test on Saturday.
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OPINION
No Liverpool player surely likes the lactate test that occurs during pre-season, as even the club’s YouTube channel describes it as being “dreaded.” Lallana, who took the lactate test on Saturday as he features in the club’s behind-the-scene footage, clearly was thanking his lucky stars that he had gotten it out the way for the season. Yet while the 31-year-old wants it to be a distant memory, it is a really good sign that the midfielder got through the fitness without picking up an injury. Lallana’s fitness has been a concern over recent seasons as he has regularly found himself stuck on the sidelines injured. The midfielder managed only 16 appearances in his 2018/19 campaign and only got 15 outings for the senior team under his belt in the 2017/18 season. Lallana missed 33 days of action due to a groin strain in his latest campaign and had hamstring issues in his 2017/18 season that saw him miss over 150 days of action (Source: Transfermarkt). So with an injury record like that, maybe Lallana getting through the lactate test without an issue, is a sign his fortunes are going to change in his 2019/20 campaign.
