As the full-time whistle sounded at Kenilworth Road to declare a disappointing draw for Liverpool, Luis Diaz dropped to his hunches.

The television directors immediately trained their cameras on the Reds' hero and one by one they came over to both console and credit in equal measure.

Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer was one of the first on the scene, wrapping an armband-clad bicep around the head of the player who had just denied his team a famous Premier League victory. The Luton skipper would have been gutted to have seen his side concede a last-gasp leveller to Diaz’s header but some things are clearly more important.

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Lockyer was instead fulsome in his respect and admiration for a player who had somehow managed to push aside the ongoing kidnapping situation surrounding his father back in Colombia to climb off the substitutes’ bench and rescue his team from an embarrassing setback that would have had several questioning if this new-look Liverpool outfit are actually made of the right stuff after all.

Those inquests might yet have merit in them after Jurgen Klopp’s men turned a flat and disjointed performance against a side who have just one win to their name this term, but the headline here was all about Diaz’s mental strength. Full credit to him for that.

After enduring the week from hell following the kidnapping of his parents in Colombia, the 26-year-old was not only in the correct frame of mind to return to the squad as a substitute but his team-mates were indebted to his intervention after Tahith Chong had grabbed a goal on the counter-attack.

Perhaps understandably, however, Diaz politely declined the opportunity to speak to the media when asked as he made his exit flanked by Darwin Nunez after the game.

Virgil van Dijk also made a beeline for his colleague before the biggest bear hug was handed out by Alisson Becker. Liverpool’s South American quartet are all very close away from the pitch and Diaz has no doubt leaned into that friendship group more than ever in recent days as the horrors of his father’s situation has become more clear.

Diaz and his fiance, Gera Ponce, are currently expecting their second child and attempted to somehow celebrate the second birthday of their first-born earlier this week, so the harrowing situation regarding his father, thousands of miles away from the winger's Merseyside home, will be gut-wrenching for everyone connected to the family. It probably cannot be overstated how heroic Diaz was here on the day as a result.

"It says a lot about his character and inner strength,” Alisson added post-match. “I can't imagine what he's going through."

Negotiations between the Colombian government and rebel group ELN will continue to try and engineer the peaceful release of Luis Manauel Diaz, affectionately known as 'Mane' to the family, and the hope is that a horrifying situation is at least nearing a resolution.

The first half was characterised by Nunez's one-man mission to breach the Luton defensive ranks. Six efforts in total included forcing Thomas Kaminski into a couple of saves from distance with the closest of the chances coming when he rattled the bar after a great pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Diogo Jota also forced the goalkeeper into a good stop from Ryan Gravenberch's threaded pass but it was a below par opening 45 minutes from Klopp's side as they struggled to make their superior quality count against their spirited hosts, who caused problems of their own through Chiedoze Ogbene down the Reds' right.

Nunez should have made it 1-0 from Mohamed Salah’s knockdown in the second period but instead of adding to his haul of seven goals this term, the Uruguay international only stuck another gilt-edge miss to the collection.

If it is right that we wax lyrical when Nunez pulls out the sort of sensational strike like he did to win the Carabao Cup game against Bournemouth on Wednesday, it’s entirely fair to criticise these sorts of aberrations in front of goal when they prove costly.

While the glaring misses against Union Saint-Gilloise and Toulouse in the Europa League were easily brushed aside during comfortable wins, this one will be tougher to dismiss as simply one of those things. These are chances he simply has to take more regularly if he is to truly unlock the very obvious potential. In fairness to Nunez, however, he never hid on an afternoon where plenty of others in the Liverpool team did.

Klopp sent on Harvey Elliott, Kostas Tsimikas and Cody Gakpo in effort to inspire some attacking invention but it was the hosts who struck via Chong on the counterattack. Liverpool felt aggrieved they had not been awarded a penalty for handball from the corner where Luton broke but in a campaign that has seen some head-scratching decisions to say the least, this was not one of them.

With the game into the fifth minute of the eight that were added on, Elliott's lofted cross was turned home by Diaz to grab a share of the spoils. It was another game-changing intervention from Klopp as far as the use of his substitutes go and the front five continue their record of having registered at least one in every game this term.

It's now 31 combined Liverpool's frontline but that won't be the main takeaway from this underwhelming draw that had far too many echoes of the painful away days of last term, when the likes of Nottingham Forest, Wolves, Bournemouth and Brentford all won against Klopp's team.

Having done so much to convince so many that giant strides have been taken forward this season, this was unquestionably a large step backwards for Liverpool.