Liverpool’s Injury Crisis: Andoni Iraola's Challenge
Andoni Iraola’s first real step into the Liverpool dugout comes with a twist: he starts the Premier League season already juggling an injury crisis.
Newcastle United arrive at Anfield on Sunday as the opening act, but the backdrop is a treatment room that has been far too busy for a new manager’s liking. Long-term absences have shaped pre-season selections, limited transfer activity has kept the core group familiar, and Iraola begins his reign knowing he will have to squeeze everything from the players available.
Isak to carry the load
At the top end of the pitch, the burden falls heavily on Alexander Isak.
The 26-year-old has been a constant presence in pre-season, starting Liverpool’s last three friendlies and looking sharp after a strong World Cup with Sweden. His movement has been bright, his touch clean, and his confidence obvious. The concern is not about talent. It’s about how long his body can carry the load.
Iraola made it clear he sees Isak as central to Liverpool’s early-season plans, especially with Hugo Ekitike ruled out for months after rupturing his Achilles in April.
“I want to keep him there as much as we can,” Iraola said, underlining just how important the striker has become. One game roughly every week in the opening stretch should help manage his minutes, but there is no disguising it: Isak is the man Liverpool will lean on while others heal.
The manager’s battle with him, as he put it, is off the ball. The goals, he is convinced, will come.
Gomez blow disrupts early plans
At the other end of the pitch, Joe Gomez’s setback has already forced a rethink.
The defender lasted only 10 minutes of a pre-season friendly against Sunderland before pulling up with a muscle problem. It was exactly the sort of disruption Iraola did not need as he tried to bed in his ideas before the real stuff starts.
“Joe will be some weeks off,” the head coach admitted. He described it as a “normal muscle injury” rather than anything more serious, but accepted that having him fit for the opener was “impossible”.
Liverpool expect Gomez to be back around early September, with the away trip to Ipswich Town on Friday, September 4, pencilled in as a realistic target. Until then, Iraola will have to shuffle his defensive options and hope no further issues appear.
Long road back for Ekitike and Bradley
The more brutal news sits deeper in the calendar.
Hugo Ekitike’s Achilles rupture in April always pointed to a long lay-off, and Iraola’s July update did nothing to soften that picture. The forward remains months away, with Liverpool tentatively eyeing November or December for his return if recovery continues to progress.
Conor Bradley is on a similar path. The full-back suffered a serious knee problem earlier in 2026, even before Ekitike’s injury, yet the two are expected to return around the same time.
“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,” Iraola explained.
Those words strip away any optimism. Bradley and Ekitike are not options for the autumn’s opening chapters. They are targets for the season’s middle act.
Leoni the first light on the horizon
There is at least one glimmer of good news.
Giovanni Leoni, sidelined with an ACL injury, is on track to be the first of the long-term absentees to rejoin the group. Iraola has repeatedly listed him as the closest to a return, even if the timescale underlines how severe his setback has been.
Leoni looks set to complete a full year out of competitive action by the time he is ready. For a defender trying to establish himself, that is a brutal pause. For Iraola, though, his eventual comeback will feel like a new signing in the heart of the season.
A new era under strain
So Iraola walks into his first competitive match as Liverpool manager knowing the margins are already thin. Isak must stay fit and firing. Gomez has to return on schedule. Ekitike, Bradley and Leoni all carry the weight of Liverpool’s winter and spring.
The new era starts on Sunday, but the story of this season might be written just as much in the rehab rooms as on the Anfield turf.
