Teenage striker Duncan accuses Liverpool of holding him against his will

Liverpool have been accused of holding academy prospect Bobby Duncan against his will and damaging the teenager’s mental health in a string of sensational allegations made by the youngster’s agent.

In an extraordinary statement from the 18-year-old’s representative, which was first reported by MailOnline on Wednesday, it is claimed Duncan has not left his house for four days because of the stress of not being allowed to leave Anfield on loan.

The statement also accuses Liverpool of ‘mentally bullying’ Duncan ­— who is club legend Steven Gerrard’s cousin - and is particularly critical of the club’s sporting director Michael Edwards.

Duncan, according to the statement, will refuse to return to club duty. Liverpool strenuously denied the accusations, branding the allegations as ‘unfounded’ in a strongly worded statement of their own.

Fiorentina and FC Nordsjaelland have made season-long loan offers for Duncan, with a view to signing the youngster on a permanent deal next summer.

But the Merseysiders have rejected all offers. Duncan wants to leave Anfield, and is in favour of a move to Fiorentina - who made a fresh offer for the teenager yesterday that proposed a season-long loan with an obligation to buy for a fixed price if he makes five or more first-team appearances this season.

But the saga has imploded after the player’s representative, Saif Rubie, posted the shocking statement following the dismissal of Fiorentina’s offer.

The statement read: “A few months ago before the end of last season, Bobby had meetings with the club’s hierarchy including academy director Alex Inglethorpe. It was recognised that Bobby wasn’t happy at Liverpool for different reasons and Alex invited us to bring offers to the club for the exit of Bobby Duncan.”

“For a player with zero first team experience, no clubs were prepared to pay an outright reasonable fee for a player they got for £200,000 last summer. With that in mind we have been able to find clubs that were ready to take Bobby on a season-long loan with a option to buy for amounts of £1.5million upwards which is a great return for the club on a player who will never play for the Liverpool first team and who doesn’t want to be there.”

“The club and Michael Edwards specifically made it clear that that kind of deal wouldn’t work. So then myself and my team worked even harder and managed to get a deal on the table for a loan with an obligation to buy after five starts with a higher transfer fee than before and a sell-on to Liverpool.”

“Putting all of that aside, the real reason Bobby missed the Under-23 game (against Southampton) on Monday is because he has suffered some deep mental health issues with all the stress the club has put him under. Stress of being told he can leave but then going out of their way to force him to stay against his will.”