Andoni Iraola has given a chilling injury update on two Liverpool players who are set to be sidelined for another few months.
The 44-year-old has taken charge at Anfield at a time when several members of his squad have been absent with long-term issues.
Giovanni Leoni is continuing to recover from rupturing his ACL last autumn, Conor Bradley has been out with a knee problem since January and Hugo Ekitike is expected to miss the rest of 2026 with an Achilles injury.
Speaking in his press conference on Tuesday from Chicago, Iraola sounded hopeful that Stefan Bajcetic and Wataru Endo would resume team training during the tour to the United States, but warned Liverpool fans not to expect the others back any time soon.
The head coach said (via liverpoolfc.com): “We have Stefan and Wataru that are close to training with the group. They will start in this during this tour, training not fully maybe but partially with the group.
“With the others, we have to wait more. In terms of order, I think the closest one to returning is Leoni. After will be Conor and Hugo, but especially the last two are still way off. We are talking about months and still a lot of time out.”
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While the update on Bajcetic and Endo is encouraging, the revelation that Bradley is still ‘months’ away from returning comes as a hammer blow to Liverpool, who already knew that Ekitike would be absent for the remainder of this year.
David Lynch had indicated in June that the right-back is ‘understood to be targeting a return to training shortly after the new season starts’, which had seemingly hinted at a potential autumn comeback, but it now appears that the 23-year-old’s injury is significantly more severe.
Unless the Reds recruit in that position during the transfer window, it increases the dependency on Jeremie Frimpong to remain fit and available, and the Dutchman had four separate spells out with hamstring/muscle injuries last season.
Iraola didn’t put a timeline on when Leoni would be back, and his update would suggest that an early-season return isn’t in the offing, but hopefully we’ll see the Italian on the pitch at some stage in the autumn.
In the meantime, we wish all of our injured players as swift a recovery as possible and look forward to seeing them back in action when the time is right.
There’s still just under six weeks remaining in the transfer window, so FSG better act during that period while they have the opportunity to back the had coach.
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