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Former Liverpool prodigy Adam Phillips is set to join Norwich City.

The young midfielder was released by the Reds in June at the end of his contract, but is now returning to football with the SkyBet Championship club.

Phillips, 19, has been training with the Canaries, joining their development squad for a pre-season training camp in Germany earlier this month.

Both Watford and West Ham were also interesting in signing the Garstang-born youngster, but Norwich appear to have won the race. The ECHO understands the crucial influence was Norwich’s sporting director Stuart Webber, a former Liverpool Academy scout who knows the player well.

Phillips, who joined Liverpool from Blackburn at 11, was long touted for a first-team future at Anfield, his passing range and set-piece delivery drawing tentative early comparisons with Steven Gerrard at the Academy.

In 2014, aged just 16, he was part of the Reds squad which toured the USA under Brendan Rodgers, and appeared in a pre-season friendly with Brondby.

He was named in the travelling party when Rodgers took the senior team to Bordeaux for a Europa League tie in September 2015, but didn’t feature in the matchday squad, and a series of injuries – in particular a troublesome back problem – slowed his progress.

With the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Woodburn and Ovie Ejaria all overtaking him in terms of their development, and with Marko Grujic, Jordan Williams, Matty Virtue and Cameron Brannagan still around the U23 setup, the decision was taken to allow Phillips to rebuild his career elsewhere this summer.

Norwich, who finished eighth in the Championship last season, will offer him the chance to do that. Phillips is expected to join the Canaries’ U23 squad initially before attempting to work his way into the senior squad under Daniel Farke, the former coach of Borussia Dortmund’s reserve team.