Arne Slot leaves Luis Diaz out of AC Milan friendly due to ongoing speculation

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot left Luis Diaz out of their 4-2 friendly defeat to AC Milan in Hong Kong due to ongoing speculation about his future.

Bayern Munich are understood to have reopened dialogue with the Premier League champions, having had an initial offer of €67.5million dismissed last week.

Liverpool have maintained they do not want to sell the forward – who has also attracted interest from Barcelona – and the Bundesliga champions’ bid was way below their own valuation of €100 million for an elite forward in the global market.

Diaz turns 29 in January and has two years left on his current deal but has not yet had an offer of a new contract.

“In Lucho’s (Diaz’s) situation, there’s a lot of rumours around him lately and I cannot go into that,” said Slot.

“He’s training really 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. I cannot comment much more about that.”

Asked whether Diaz wanted to leave, Slot added: “That is not the person to ask, me.”

Striker Darwin Nunez, whose own future appears to lie away from Anfield, and midfielder Wataru Endo missed the game with minor fitness issues.

Club-record signing Florian Wirtz made his first start as a false nine, with latest signing Hugo Ekitike left out of the squad, having only arrived on Thursday after completing his arrival in a £79m deal on Wednesday.

Slot played two different starting XIs in each half, with midfielder Ryan Gravenberch and left-back Kostas Tsimikas both required to fill a centre-back role after Joe Gomez returned home for treatment on an Achilles injury.

“We thought it was better to assess it back in England and for him to work on him to come back to the team, probably