Ibrahima Konaté has reacted with bemusement at a story linking him with a summer move to Liverpool.
On Monday morning, The Athletic claimed that Liverpool were close to sealing a €40million deal for the 21-year old RB Leipzig defender.
Even after the January deadline day arrivals of Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies, centre-back is seen as a key area of recruitment for Jurgen Klopp in the summer.
A series of injuries to Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Ben Davies forced the Reds boss to field a series of unusual and unexpected centre-back partnerships.
Konaté has a release clause at Leipzig, believed to be €40million. But with Dayot Upamecano leaving for Bayern Munich in the summer as well, the Bundesliga club are unlikely to be in a hurry to cash-in on Konaté's potential.
He's currently with the France U21 squad, as they prepare for Wednesday's European Championship qualifier away to Iceland.
"I'm not even looking at that", Konaté said of the links to last season's Premier League champions.
"I woke up, saw my phone ringing all over the place and I just wanted to say, 'Hey I'm tired, I played yesterday, leave me alone'", he laughed.
Konaté added, "There have been rumours with so many clubs... You shouldn't focus on that. For now, I'm concentrating on the next qualifier, then I go back to my club."
Given their reasons for needing reinforcements, Liverpool could be perturbed by Konaté's injury profile.
He missed the first three games of the Bundesliga season with a muscle injury, before missing seven games around the turn of the year with an ankle injury.
Konaté was on the bench for both legs of Leipzig's UEFA Champions League last-16 tie with Liverpool, but started five of their six group games.
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