Freddie Woodman has spent most of his Liverpool career in the shadows, but the goalkeeper now stands on the brink of what he calls an “unreal” moment: a first Premier League start for the club he joined as third choice, against the team he grew up supporting.

The 29-year-old arrived at Anfield from Preston North End last summer, fully aware that Alisson Becker and Giorgi Mamardashvili stood between him and the Liverpool goal. His role was clear: train hard, stay ready, and accept that minutes would be scarce.

That changed in the heat of the Merseyside derby. With Alisson already sidelined by a muscle problem, Mamardashvili was stretchered off early in the second half after suffering a deep leg wound. Woodman, who had never played a league minute for Liverpool, was suddenly thrown into one of English football’s most charged fixtures.

He coped with the pressure, helped see out a 2-1 win, and was applauded by the Anfield crowd at full-time after Virgil van Dijk’s stoppage-time winner settled the contest.

“It’s a little nerve-racking, to be honest,” Woodman admitted. “But I think the nerves sort of fuel you. You think about the eight months that have gone past where you’ve worked every day really for this one moment. When you’re called upon, you just want to be reliable.”

Reliability has been the thread running through Woodman’s career. A Newcastle United academy product, he made nine senior appearances for the club and built his reputation through a series of loans at Hartlepool, Crawley Town, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Swansea and Bournemouth. A move to Preston in 2022 brought stability and 138 games before Liverpool came calling.

Adjusting to life as a third-choice goalkeeper has been a challenge. “I quickly realized my game time is going to be limited and that I would probably be called upon for 10, 20 minutes,” he said. “Those eight months where I’m training, I’m just thinking about those 10 minutes, those 20 minutes where you are nervous, but you can rely on all the preparation.”

That preparation has also meant embracing a different kind of importance: staying out after training to face extra free kicks from Dominik Szoboszlai or additional shooting drills from Mohamed Salah, and building relationships with senior players he once viewed as distant stars.

Now, with Mamardashvili expected to miss at least two weeks, Woodman could be handed a full league debut against Crystal Palace, the club he supported as a child, where he once worked as a ball-boy and faced earlier this season in the Carabao Cup.

“It would be unreal, incredible, to get another game in the Premier League and for Liverpool,” he said. “I’ll just go about my stuff this week and prepare as if I am playing.”