Mohamed Salah and Wataru Endo will both take part in Liverpool pre-season training instead of competing at the Olympics.
In a huge boost to the club, the duo will not feature for their countries in the football tournament at the Paris 2024 Games.
The under-23 Olympic football tournament allows nations to call up three over-age players as part of their squads.
As such, Egypt and Japan had considered calling up 32-year-old Salah and 31-year-old Endo, respectively, as part of this quota.
But according to the Athletic, neither player will now be competing at the tournament and will instead be free to participate in Liverpool‘s pre-season tour of America in late July.
Given that the Olympics is neither a FIFA nor a UEFA competition, Liverpool were not obliged to release players and let them compete.
Japan captain Endo had previously expressed a desire to play at the Olympics.
“I’m also kind of wondering what will happen,” he had previously told the Japanese television show ABEMA Sports Time. “Nothing has been decided yet but my stance is that if I’m selected, I’d like to go.”
However, in the end, no over-age players were selected for Japan’s squad with head coach Go Oiwa admitting that the ‘restrictions’ they had been forced to work under had influenced the team choices.
The duo’s omission comes after Spain’s Stefan Bajcetic was also left out of his nation’s Olympic squad, leaving the 19-year-old free to focus on recovering from the injury that plagued him for most of last season.
Having these players for pre-season comes as a huge boost to new Liverpool manager Arne Slot who will be taking over the reins at the club following the departure of Jurgen Klopp.
The men’s football tournament at the Olympics will run from 24 July to 9 August, with 32 matches being played in total to determine the eventual winner.
It would mean that any Premier League player involved in the tournament could return back to their club just one week before the new season begins on August 16.
Liverpool are first in action on August 17 when they will travel to face the newly-promoted Ipswich Town in what will be Slot’s first test.