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Liverpool Injury Updates: Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike, Wataru Endo

conor bradley

Liverpool have a new and potentially serious injury concern in defender Conor Bradley. In the closing stages of yesterday’s goalless draw with Arsenal, Bradley suffered what looked like a knee injury that was so severe, it required his being stretchered off.

Bradley went down off the ball in stoppage time, with Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli then attempting to push him off the pitch. This drew the ire of Liverpool, including their manager, Arne Slot.

FA Cup 3rd Round FYIs

martinelli

Liverpool vs Barnsley

Kickoff: Mon. Jan 12, 7:45pm

Venue: Anfield, Liverpool, UK

Liverpool Team News

Slot made the following headline-generating comments after the match at the Emirates Stadium:

emirates stadium

“I don’t know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy and I think the problem for him is, and it’s a problem in general in football, is there’s so much time-wasting and players pretending they’re injured during the game, you can sometimes be annoyed if you want to score a goal and you think a player is time-wasting.”

“I cannot ask Gabriel Martinelli in the 94th minute, when it’s so emotional, for him to understand he plays Liverpool who are a team that don’t go to the floor.

“I’m 100% sure that if he knew what the injury might be that he would never do that. But it doesn’t look great if he has the injury we fear he might have, of course. But football, time-wasting, diving has come to the point that in the 94th minute players think that’s probably happening again because I’ve seen it against us so many times this season.”

Regarding the severity of the knee injury to Conor Bradley, Slot fielded a reporter’s question about that, responding: “I don’t know yet, but it doesn’t look great when you have to go off on a stretcher. I think when we see the video we probably both think the same, but we have to wait on the scans.”

Bradley, who came off at 90+5′ and was replaced by Joe Gomez, marked the only substitution of the game for Liverpool. It’s fair to rule him out for the FA Cup tie on Monday night against Barnsley.

hugo ekitike

Moving on to the other injury updates, Hugo Ekitike (thigh) could feature, perhaps in a limited role, in the cup clash on Monday night. If not, then his return should come in the next game.

“He has not trained with us until now, and let’s see if he can today,” Slot said on Wednesday.

“I’ve said, I think, two or three days ago when we played Fulham that he is not going to be out for long, but because games come so fast, he is in between, maybe training with the team, or it would take him one or two days extra.”

Ekitike was not in the matchday squad yesterday. As for Japanese midfielder Wataru Endo, the timeline for return from his ankle injury is around the same as Ekitike, or slightly later.

Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank.He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”

He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG.org and Ratings.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.