Liverpool Manager Andoni Iraola
Liverpool Manager Andoni Iraola
Liverpool faced a major injury concern as Victor Munoz missed their 4-3 Champions League win over Villarreal. The Spaniard joined Dominik Szoboszlai, Jeremie Frimpong, Hugo Ekitike, Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni on the sidelines.
The Reds fell 2-0 behind at Anfield before mounting a comeback to secure all three points, with Rio Ngumoha impressing on the right in Munoz’s absence.
Szoboszlai has been struggling with a hamstring injury that ruled him out of the defeat to Manchester City, the win over LASK and the Villarreal clash.
Frimpong was another casualty in Brentford, limping off just six minutes into his substitute appearance. The right-back went down clutching his leg, with Iraola confirming that the former Bayer Leverkusen defender and Szoboszlai would be out “for some time”.
Meanwhile, Ekitike continues his recovery from an Achilles rupture suffered at the end of last season. The Frenchman is progressing well but has yet to return to team training.
Conor Bradley is closest to a comeback after suffering a serious knee injury against Arsenal in January that ended his campaign. Iraola confirmed the defender will soon return to partial team training.
“[He is] doing very well,” the head coach said. “I think [he is] in a good place. Conor is not so far from training with the group – not like full training but doing some things with the group. I think Conor is not very far from starting doing things with us.”
According to the Daily Mail, Bradley is in the final stages of his recovery from the serious knee injury he suffered at the Emirates Stadium.
The defender is back working on grass and hopes to rejoin some team sessions in the near future. However, he will need to be eased back gradually, with setbacks common at this stage of rehabilitation, as Giovanni Leoni’s recovery has shown.
Hugo Ekitike is just behind Bradley in his own recovery process. Since Trent Alexander-Arnold left Liverpool, several players have featured at right-back, including Ronald Araujo, Joe Gomez, Szoboszlai, Frimpong, Ryan Gravenberch, Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones and Calvin Ramsay.
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