French football journalist Julien Laurens reports that Bradley Barcola is nowhere close to being fit enough to play for Liverpool, despite completing his £123m move to Anfield this week.
The Reds agreed to pay PSG a basic fee of £106m upfront, with up to £17m in performance-related add-ons to follow, however, there is a chance that he will not be ready to play against Ipswich Town tomorrow or Atletico Madrid next week Wednesday.
Barcola’s last competitive game came for France against England in the third-place playoff of the FIFA World Cup, which Les Bleus lost 6-4. Barcola scored once and played one key pass, but since then, he went on holiday and then returned to PSG training, but has yet to play any games.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Julien Laurens has warned that Barcola will not be ready to “even a few minutes” against Ipswich, which would be a major blow to the Reds.
Laurens said: “Fitness wise he’s not ready to even play I think a few minutes in the Premier League. So they will need to work on his fitness before he’s able to play first team football.”
Julien Laurens on Bradley Barcola
“Fitness wise he’s not ready to even play I think a few minutes in the Premier League. So they will need to work on his fitness before he’s able to play first team football.”
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Iraola will hold his pre-match press conference to preview the trip to Ipswich tomorrow night, and he will have more news on Barcola’s fitness and when to expect him to play.
Liverpool need him fit and playing as soon as possible, although his fitness cannot possibly be as bad as Alexander Isak’s when he joined the Reds from Newcastle United last summer.
The Swede went on strike to force a move to Liverpool and spent around two months on the fringes of the Newcastle training ground, before eventually getting his move to Anfield on Deadline Day.
This had a massive impact on his fitness, with some theorising that the lack of fitness in some contributed to the broken leg he suffered against Tottenham in December, although that is pure conjecture.
In 152 games for PSG, Barcola scored 39 goals and assisted another 37, although with far more of his appearances for Liverpool set to be from the start rather than the bench, those numbers are likely to improve.