Ibrahima Konate trades the pitch for the basketball court during red-card absence

Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate, sidelined for the 3-1 win over Burnley at the weekend due to the red card he picked up at Arsenal, made the most of his downtime by escaping from the world of football and sampling a different sport entirely.

During his enforced break, the Frenchman returned to his native country to attend a basketball match in his hometown of Paris.

The towering centre-back was spotted at the Arena Porte de la Chapelle in the French capital as he watched Paris Basketball beat Saint-Quentin 87-65.

Interestingly, he was accompanied at the match by Ousmane Dembele and Randal Kolo Muani - both forwards for Paris Saint-Germain.

The casual outing, captured by the X (formerly Twitter) account @ParisBasketball, showed Konate in a relaxed mood, far removed from the intense battles he's accustomed to on the football pitch.

Inevitable PSG rumours

However, this meeting with current PSG players will inevitably fuel rumours of a potential future move, especially after Konate admitted in November to imagining himself playing for the club.

When asked by Canal Plus whether he could see himself in a PSG shirt one day, he said: "If I said no, I'd be lying, but if you're asking, is it one of my objectives? Not at all.

"PSG has made sure to recruit players who understand each other well and who play with each other for the France national team. Even for the people and the Parisian fans, it makes them happy. It's what they've been waiting for for years, having Parisian players or at least French players in the team."

However, spending some downtime with his friends and international teammates in his home city shouldn't set too many alarm bells ringing for Reds fans.

In fact, it has been reported that Liverpool are hoping to tie Konate down to a new long-term deal and that initial talks have already begun.