‘My understanding is…’ – Fabrizio Romano issues Liverpool right-back update as deadline looms

Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Liverpool have enquired with Inter Milan about the situation of Denzel Dumfries in the final days of the January transfer window.

The Reds will end the month with just one senior right-back in their squad – the largely untried Calvin Ramsay – after injury setbacks to Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong in recent matches, and they have less than 72 hours to act on that before Monday night’s deadline.

While The Athletic maintained this week that LFC are unlikely to pursue any short-term fixes in the market, the Italian had left the door open to the possibility of a late-window move if a ‘good solution’ could be found.

Romano posted an update on his eponymous YouTube channel late on Friday night in which he revealed that Liverpool have spoken to Inter about Dumfries, albeit that it’s extremely unlikely to result in a deal being done in the current transfer window.

Romano: Liverpool have ‘asked’ about Dumfries

The reporter said: “Liverpool had a conversation with Inter [on Friday], a club-to-club conversation with Inter, very good relationship. From what I’m told, Liverpool asked about the situation of Dumfries. The release clause of around €20m-€25m (£17.3m-£21.7m) is not valid in January, only in the summer.

“The understanding is Liverpool asked about the player and the injury situation. At the moment, Dumfries is still expected to be out for around 10, 15, 20 days. It should not be a long one. Liverpool got this information, but at the moment they didn’t send any bid or start any negotiation.

“My understanding is that Liverpool could potentially only consider this possibility due to the injury on a loan deal, and Inter don’t want to do a loan deal for Dumfries.

“At the moment there is nothing in it. There is just conversations club-to-club. Let’s see if Liverpool decide to attack, but at the moment it’s just a normal conversation.”

Dumfries won’t solve Liverpool’s current woes

From Romano’s update, it’d appear that Liverpool won’t sign a right-back before Monday night’s deadline, but could be sounding out Dumfries as a potential summer option if they sense a feasible opportunity to strike.

The Netherlands international boasts a wealth of high-level experience for club and country, but at 29 years of age and having been laid low with an ankle injury since November, he mightn’t be the most ideal long-term answer for a position which has proven to be highly problematic for Slot this season.

Frimpong and Bradley are both excellent players, but the former has already been injured three times since joining the Reds last summer, while the latter has also had his own problems in that regard and is currently sidelined for the remainder of the 2025/26 campaign.

Slot indicated on Friday that his fellow Dutchman will be ‘out for a few weeks’, so in the meantime he’ll either have to put his faith in Ramsay, utilise Joe Gomez at right-back once he returns from his current layoff, or redeploy a midfielder on the right-hand side of defence.

The head coach has frequently gone with the latter option this term, but it simply isn’t viable as a long-term solution. Liverpool have until Monday night to act, or else spend the rest of the season praying that the defensive casualty list doesn’t extend even further.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Qarabag press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

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