Jürgen Klopp just gave the record-breaking Liverpool star a reward for his talent as he makes his way back.

A record-breaking adolescent from Liverpool is still working on his recovery. He was rewarded by Jürgen Klopp with a spot on the bench against Toulouse in the Europa League.

Football players in their youth seldom follow the same developmental trajectories. Liverpool staff frequently have to make decisions about who is ready because some people progress quickly while others take longer.

Football players are not any different from other humans in that regard. Consider Steven Gerrard as an illustration. He may be one of the greatest Liverpool players of all time, but he didn’t really start making an impact on the first squad until he was 19 years old.

It’s simple to understand how player development differs from player to player when you contrast Gerrard with someone like Jude Bellingham, who at that age had already made numerous appearances for his country and played in more than 100 first-team games.

Not everyone is going to be a Michael Owen or a Bellingham, for that matter. Growing pains often held back Gerrard, as they do many young football players who blossom ‘late’. or, more accurately, musculoskeletal problems in adolescents.

In football, this is not unusual. Adolescents frequently grow and develop at varying speeds. Gerrard experienced a significant growth spurt between the ages of 17 and 18, which required Liverpool to manage him carefully and postponed his debut in the first team.

Erling Haaland had to go through a similar scenario at Molde in Norway when the team prevented him from playing football due to a massive growth spurt. I recall discussing this exact topic with Molde FK scout John Vik for First Time Finish.

“He was really impatient because we wouldn’t play him at the start, he didn’t get games, he just had to train alternative for a long time,” he said. “But the medical department felt that the best thing for him was to take it easy for the next maybe six months and slowly, slowly put him back into football.”

Kaide Gordon, a highly regarded prospect now at Liverpool, recently had to go through a similar procedure to that of Haaland and Gerrard. When the young player from Liverpool first joined the team in 2021, he quickly became well-known and even made a few first-team outings.

Among his first team accomplishments was the distinction of becoming the team’s youngest-ever FA Cup scorer, having scored against Shrewsbury back in 2022. However, Gordon made four games for Liverpool overall and earned his Premier League debut as well.

Gordon, who was just 1.73 metres tall at the time, began to experience pelvic pain and was eventually diagnosed with teenage musculoskeletal problems, similar to what Gerrard had previously had. Gordon was forced to miss the remainder of the 2021–2022 season starting at the end of February as a result, and he did not play for the club’s academy teams last season.

But now, following a protracted absence, he’s back and playing football. He played 16 minutes for the club’s U21 team in the Premier League 2 earlier this season in September. He then returned to action in the Premier League International Cup, spending slightly over 30 minutes against Benfica.

In Premier League 2 and the EFL Trophy, Gordon has played 105 minutes in total, leading the team against Barrow on Tuesday.

He was listed as a reserve against Toulouse two days later. Although Gordon was unlikely to be used by Liverpool in that match and especially not when the team was still trying to win, it was a good consolation prize for a player who had been out of action for so long.

Gordon appears to be getting more muscular now that he is playing at the academy level. He’s obviously matured a lot, and he’s put on weight too. He appears notably stronger than the slender adolescent Liverpool supporters witnessed competing for the first team nearly two years ago.

Gordon’s development will be patiently handled by Liverpool. It is noteworthy that he turned nineteen only about a month ago. He won’t be rushed back into the starting lineup. However, Jürgen Klopp will also be aware of Gordon’s talent and will eventually realise that, with continued effort, he may once again greatly help the club’s first team.