‘I warned them!’ - Darwin Nunez explains wild gate-leap celebration during Liverpool’s Carabao Cup final win despite supposedly being injured

The 24-year-old South American was able to train in the build-up to a Wembley showpiece with Premier League rivals Chelsea, but was not fit enough to take up a place in Jurgen Klopp’s matchday plans. As a result, he was restricted to a seat in the stands alongside the likes of Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai.

Nunez did, however, look to be in decent physical condition after seeing Virgil van Dijk net a dramatic winning goal for Liverpool deep into extra-time. He was quick to brush team-mates aside as he raced down steps towards the field and hurdled over a gate and pitch-side advertising hoardings.

Klopp told reporters when being made aware of the energetic celebrations from those that have been nursing knocks: “OK, Darwin and Dom are obviously not fit in the moment, that’s why they didn’t play, but the celebration looked at 100 per cent, let me say it like that. I’ll have to talk about that with the medical department!”

Nunez has joked on social media that he was never going to be held back in Liverpool found a winner, saying: “I warned them that if we scored the goal I was going to jump.” He did just that and has cemented his cult hero standing among Reds supporters after displaying impressive passion for the collective cause.

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Liverpool are contending with a long injury list at present and will hope to have the likes of Nunez back at their disposal shortly – with a side that remains in contention for four trophies this season preparing for an FA Cup fifth-round clash at home to Southampton on Wednesday.