Liverpool could soon have a full-blown defensive injury crisis on their hands if they’re not careful.
Conor Bradley pulled up on the turf in the second half of action at Villa Park after having replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold beyond the hour mark.
Arne Slot was forced to replace the 21-year-old with centre-back Jarell Quansah – with Joe Gomez also in the treatment room – to see out the remainder of a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa.
Has Conor Bradley suffered a hamstring injury?
The signs aren’t great for the Northern Ireland international.
Fan footage taken at Villa Park by @asim_lfc showed Bradley appearing to indicate to attending physios that his hamstring was causing him some problems.
A pretty worrying initial diagnosis from the young fullback given the fact he returned to first-team action at the start of the year after having picked up a similar injury in the tail-end of 2024.
Looks like Bradley was complaining about his hamstring. Great. #LFC pic.twitter.com/PX0syPAXDk
— Asim (@asim_lfc) February 19, 2025
At the very least, it seems the defender will be set to miss out on key upcoming Premier League meetings with Manchester City (away) and Newcastle United (home).
“It is difficult but he felt a bit when he made a sprint. He tried to continue but had to go out,” Arne Slot told reporters at his post-match presser (via liverpoolfc.com).
“All the time with injuries, I always say if a player wants to go out himself, that’s not a promising sign.
“It will probably lead to the fact he is probably 99.9 per cent not available for City and I don’t expect him against Newcastle as well.
“Then we have to see if it’s one or two weeks or if it’s going to be even longer.”
It’s such an incredible shame given we’ve seen some positive performances from Conor Bradley since that point!
Liverpool will need to manage Trent Alexander-Arnold carefully
With Alexander-Arnold’s fitness levels also being carefully managed at this stage – hence the decision to take off our No.66 in the second half – we’re walking a bit of an injury tightrope.
There’s now officially no senior backup for the right-back role should our vice-captain also suffer an ill-timed injury in the coming days and weeks.
How exactly Arne Slot should go about managing the Real Madrid-linked fullback’s minutes in a week’s worth of football containing clashes with City and Newcastle, however, is quite the ask.
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