Harvey Elliott has revealed that Sadio Mane has gone the extra mile in helping to make sure that he’s ready to flourish at Liverpool.
The 18-year-old celebrated a milestone birthday last week and is gearing up to return to Merseyside over the coming months.
Liverpool loaned the prodigious young talent to Blackburn Rovers in the Championship last summer and 16 goal involvements from 37 games in all competitions ought to illustrate that he has coped remarkably well with such a physical division.
But the Premier League is a huge step-up in both class and physicality – and Elliott has told CBS Sport that the Senegalese winger doesn’t hold back in gym sessions or on the training ground to ensure the teenage gem is ready for the demands of England’s top flight.
He said: “Sadio in particular helped me a lot because we have the same gym program. Obviously, I’m not as strong as him yet but whenever I’m doing an activity or an exercise and he thinks it’s too easy for me, he’s always trying to push me on a bit more and change the weight or he’s even trying to knock me about himself just to get me used to being knocked around and to make sure that I’m ready [for it on the pitch].”
Mane does not exactly look like a powerhouse in terms of strength, but some of his Liverpool team-mates have, in the past, revealed that he is deceptively strong and this is a good player from Elliott to learn from going forward; not only because the former Southampton star is brilliant, but because he isn’t the biggest in terms of height or build and if he can still boss the Premier League, so too can the teenager.
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