Mane: I convinced Firmino to play with a text message

Joe Williams

Sadio Mane has revealed that he sent Roberto Firmino a text to convince him to play through an eye injury ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain.

Jurgen Klopp said that he thought there was “no chance” that Firmino would make the game after he suffered an abrasion to the cornea in his left eye in a clash with Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen over the weekend.

However, despite not training on Sunday or Monday because of the problem, Firmino played and scored the winning goal as the Reds won the match 3-2 in injury time.

“I think Bobby doesn’t need his eye to play so I told him,” said Mane.

“I sent him a message on Monday saying, ‘Hey Bobby, come on, we need you’.

“You’ve all seen the ‘no look’ goals so I think he doesn’t need his eye to play. I texted him saying, ‘You don’t need your eye’.”

And Mane has described the result against PSG as a “big result” as Liverpool look to go one better than their final appearance in last year’s competition.

“It’s a great start. It is too early to speak about anything, but it is very important for us to focus more because we are Liverpool , we are a stronger team, and we will try to do our best every game,” added Mane.

“I think it’s a big result (against PSG) honestly. It is very important for us to keep going on our good run.

“It was not an easy game because PSG are one of the best teams in the world, but we played very well and deserved to win.”