Jordan Henderson sends message to Liverpool teammates about Sadio Mane’s departure

• Liverpool will begin the season with a curtain raiser against Manchester City on July 30
• Henderson wants Liverpool to adapt quickly to the absence of Sadio Mane
• Mane joined Bayern Munich from Liverpool, with the Reds replacing him with Darwin Nunez

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has urged his teammates to move on from Sadio Mane and focus more on new signing Darwin Nunez.

The Reds recently made a record signing in acquiring Nunez, paying Benfica a stunning £85million for the Uruguay international’s services.

Nunez is considered a direct replacement for Sadio Mane, who decided to ditch the Reds for Bayern Munich this summer.

Mane’s departure is certainly likely to affect the dynamic of Liverpool ‘s attack, but Jurgen Klopp still has an array of talent to pick from up front.

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Aside from Mohammed Salah, who recently signed a new deal at Anfield, Klopp also has the luxury of picking either Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino, Luis Diaz or Nunez in attack.

According to Henderson, his side still has a potent attack, despite Mane’s departure.

“For any team that loses Sadio it will be a big blow, because he's a world-class player, for me one of the best forwards in the world,” said Henderson as quoted by Mirror Sport.

“But we’ve got world-class players, especially in the forward line. Luis Diaz, who performed phenomenally well last season. Darwin has come in, Bobby [Firmino] is coming back, so we’ve got world-class options. Things move on and change, so hopefully we can adapt to that quickly.

Nunez proved himself in the Portuguese Primera Liga last season, emerging as the team’s top scorer and incidentally also getting a goal against Liverpool in the Champions League.

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Mane, Salah among African player of the year contenders

Elsewhere, Sports Brief reported that Former Liverpool teammates Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are among 10 stars shortlisted for the 2022 African Player of the Year award, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced on Monday.

Salah won the award in 2017 and 2018 and Mane in 2019. The 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Playing key roles as Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time this year and qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar could give Mane the edge over Salah.