Liverpool told 27-year-old player had become ‘scared’ while at the club last season

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It’s fair to say that the summer transfer window of 2022 was a bit of a bust for Liverpool.

Darwin Nunez may have started to turn things around after a tricky debut season in red, but otherwise, Liverpool’s business proved to be poor.

The worst of the four deals they did 18 months ago was undoubtedly the loan move to sign Arthur Melo from Juventus. Arthur is a decent player, but his Anfield career amount to a 13-minute cameo against Napoli in September. After that, the 27-year-old never saw the pitch again.

It was a shame for Arthur, who had been working hard to get himself fit by appearing in the under-age sides. But after tearing a quadricep in October, he could never get himself back in contention.

Now doing well at Fiorentina, Arthur appears to have shaken off any lingering issues. But speaking in an interview with Corriere dello Sport via Calciomercato, the Brazilian’s physiotherapist Adrian Martinez Castro has claimed that Arthur’s time at Liverpool had left him ‘scared’ of being out on the pitch.

“When he injured his quadriceps in Liverpool, he was scared, something unusual for him,” says Castro. “That stop conditioned him because he feared, once he recovered, that he could get hurt again. That was a thing of the past, though. Now there’s only Florence.”

Arthur scared of injury complications

This is a real shame to read. Now it’s clear why Jurgen Klopp refused to give Arthur even a brief cameo during last season.

If the player himself wasn’t sure of his own fitness, then how could the manager be.

In all likelihood Arthur would have been fine to get out and play again. He’s become a fixture in the team at Fiorentina, appearing in all of their 18 Serie A fixtures so far, starting 15 of them.

That doesn’t happen unless he’s in good physical shape. Having not been on the pitch for almost a year by the time this season came around, that’s pretty good going. Castro must be a fine physio.

Unfortunately, his work didn’t translate into his client shaking off any doubts to play for Liverpool.

Things have worked out relatively well for Arthur since and he must be delighted to have gotten his career back on track.

But there must still be a part of him that regrets what happened at Liverpool. The opportunity was there for him to reignite his career at a huge club. Had things gone better, he could have a Reds player this season.

No player can be blamed for injury of course. It’s part of the game and it can happen to anyone at any time. But what you can change is how you react to these setbacks. Had Arthur reacted in a better way in 2022, maybe he’d have more – and better- memories of his time at Liverpool.