Conor Bradley won’t play for Liverpool again this season after suffering a serious knee injury.
Conor Bradley could be on the Liverpool sidelines for as long as a year, it has been suggested.
The right-back will not play for the Reds again this campaign after suffering a serious knee injury in last weekend’s 0-0 draw against Arsenal. Bradley had to leave the Emirates Stadium pitch on a stretcher, having sustained ligament and bone damage.
He will have surgery, although Liverpool have not put a timescale on how long Bradley will be sidelined for. But according to sports scientist Simon Brunish, a ‘realistic expectation’ is that the Northern Ireland international will be absent for up to 12 months despite not rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament.
Writing on his Substack, Brunish said: “Surgery is required, and a twelve-month absence is a realistic expectation. That alone makes this injury significant. The deeper issue is how predictable this moment looks when viewed through the lens of his career to date.
“Without going into specific structures, this injury involves both bone and ligament. It is not an isolated soft tissue issue and it is not something that resolves with rest alone. Surgical fixation is required. Decisions made in the operating theatre will influence joint alignment, stability, and long-term tolerance to load. For a defender whose role depends on repeated accelerations, decelerations, lateral movements, and physical duels, this is a significant injury.
“The rehabilitation ahead will be long. Early phases will prioritise protection and healing. Weight bearing will be progressed cautiously. Muscle loss is inevitable. Movement quality will take time to restore. Ligament involvement complicates return to performance even after return to play. Players often report that confidence lags behind clearance, and subconscious protection can persist long after objective markers appear satisfactory. This is where careers can stall if progression is rushed.”
Bradley has struggled to remain fit since making a first-team breakthrough at Liverpool. The 22-year-old has been troubled with hamstring problems over the past 18 months, finding himself on the treatment table three times this term before his major setback.
Brunish explained that Bradley’s lack of a straightforward transition to the demands of the Premier League may have caused his knee problem. “Each time momentum has built, something has intervened,” Brandish added. “Injuries have arrived frequently enough to disrupt continuity, but not always severely enough to force long periods of structured rebuilding. The result has been repeated resets. Tolerance rises briefly, is tested quickly, then collapses again.
“This is what false starts look like in elite football. They are rarely dramatic. They do not announce themselves with catastrophic moments early in a career. They accumulate quietly through interrupted training blocks, disrupted rhythm, and repeated attempts to re-establish baseline capacity. The player is never fully unfit, but never truly robust either.
“Players who transition cleanly into senior football usually do so through volume and repetition. They train every day. They play regularly. They travel, recover, repeat, and gradually learn what normal feels like at that level. Their tissues adapt. Their nervous systems adapt. Their psychology adapts. Bradley has rarely been afforded that runway.
“The injury itself was not the result of a reckless challenge or an obvious collision. Arsenal launched a high ball over his right shoulder. Bradley turned and ran approximately forty metres under pressure from Gabriel Martinelli. As he attempted to clear with his right foot, he planted on his left. The plant foot slipped laterally on contact. He arrived slightly off balance, with a small hop on entry. The slip introduced shear forces through the knee, and the attempted clearance across his body created rotational torque. Compression from landing, shear from the slip, and rotation from the clearance combined in a way the joint could not tolerate.
“This is a common mechanism for serious non-ACL knee injuries in football. They often occur in moments that look routine, when multiple forces converge faster than the joint can dissipate them. They are not freak accidents, but neither are they simple overload injuries. They sit in the space where exposure, fatigue, surface interaction, and movement intent overlap.”
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