Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola has revealed Northern Ireland international Conor Bradley is still “far from returning” to action – saying “we are talking about months and a lot of time out”.
Bradley suffered a serious knee injury during the Reds’ Premier League clash against Arsenal in January and underwent surgery with the hope of being fit for the new season.
The 23-year-old missed Northern Ireland’s World Cup play-off semi-final defeat to Italy and it appears Michael O’Neill will now be without his star player for a four-game Nations League window across September and October.
Bradley has travelled with Liverpool’s squad for their pre-season tour to America – they’re taking part in the Premier League Summer Series and will face Sunderland, Wrexham and Leeds United – but won’t feature on the pitch after an update from his new manager.
Northern Ireland's Conor Bradley is still 'months' away from returning to action. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)placeholder image
Northern Ireland's Conor Bradley is still 'months' away from returning to action. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
Former Dungannon Swifts youngster Bradley made 19 Premier League appearances as Liverpool were crowned champions in 2025 and racked up a further 15 outings last term before his campaign was cruelly cut short.
He was attempting to nail down the right-back position in Liverpool’s team following Trent Alexander-Arnold’s exit to Real Madrid and produced a number of impressive performances, including against the Spanish giants in the Champions League.
While Iraola has outlined his ambition to have Bradley as his long-term solution at Anfield, the Reds chief admits the Merseyside club could look to the transfer market with the Co Tyrone native set for an extended period on the sidelines.
“At the end, if you have a fully fit, healthy Conor Bradley, we are very happy, ready to go, and we would not be asking ourselves these questions (about signing a new full-back),” said Iraola. “I think it is a situation that is tricky because we trust Conor in the long term, we know we want him to be our right-back.
“But right now, he’s still, I would say, a little bit far from returning. So with the centre-back, with the right-back situations, in terms of defensive depth, we are, I think, very thin right now.
“So I think it’s a solution that we are trying to find, yes.
“(Bradley, Hugo Ekitike and Giovanni Leoni) are big, big injuries, it’s taking them months to recover.
“And apart from those three, we have Stefan (Bajcetic) and Wataru (Endo) 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.”