Former Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones is back training with the first-team squad, but only to help him with his fitness.
It is a piece of news that will likely have stunned many Reds supporters – and provided endless clickbait for some – but there is more (or less) to it than first meets the eye.
Jones, who left Liverpool a year ago, is currently a free agent, and the club are allowing him to train at Melwood in order to improve his fitness.
The Australian has just completed a short stint at Dutch Eredvisie side NEC, where he chose to leave in order to find a new club.
After was released by Liverpool last summer, his move to Bradford City was not a success and he managed just three appearances at Valley Parade.
Jones’ Reds career will never be one that is looked upon too fondly by supporters, but he is a likeable presence around the club.
Signed from Middlesbrough for £2.3 million in August 2010, the 34-year-old only represented Liverpool 27 times in the five years that followed.
He often looked out of his depth when he was given a chance to shine, with one appalling display in the FA Cup against Oldham Atheltic a low point.
Jones did enjoy one memorable Reds performance, however, away to Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League in April 2012.
He saved a Yakubu penalty, having just come on as a substitute after Alexander Doni’s red card, and Liverpool eventually won the game 3-2.
Jones felt like a strange signing at the time, and very little over the next five years did much to alter that opinion.
He was seen as a popular member of the squad, though, and that has no doubt played a part in Jurgen Klopp‘s decision to allow him train with some of his former teammates.
Jones will work with goalkeeper coach John Achterberg alongside new signing Loris Karius, Adam Bogdan and Ryan Fulton.
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