VideoTennis star Neal Skupski meets Liverpool squad at AXA Training Centre

The reigning Wimbledon men's doubles champion was invited to meet the Reds squad and observe their preparations ahead of the Europa League opener against LASK.

Skupski, who was born in Liverpool, still manages to closely follow the club he loves despite a demanding tennis schedule that takes him all over the world.

He told Liverpoolfc.com: "It's been an amazing day. I got the invite, so came down, met some of the boys already, met Jürgen – which is quite incredible, very normal, very down to earth.

"I was very nervous. Just driving in with my brother, it was sweaty palms stuff! But they were all very nice, very down to earth and made me feel very comfortable as I walked through the door.

"It's obviously very nice to experience this. It's a bucket-list thing to come down and see them all train.

"I'm in different time zones a lot of the time. I'm off to China at the weekend – I'll be in Beijing and Shanghai competing for the next two-and-a-half weeks – so that's going to be early morning stuff unfortunately for me, getting up early, probably at 2am [to watch the games].

"Travelling the world, it is very difficult – but to support these Reds, I'm never going to miss them."