Liverpool are edging closer to welcoming back at least one first-team player this week, with defender Joe Gomez in contention to feature against Ipswich Town this weekend, while a host of other absentees continue their recovery on varying timelines.
Gomez suffered a muscle injury just ten minutes into Liverpool's opening pre-season friendly against Sunderland in Nashville, Tennessee, and was subsequently sidelined for several weeks. The club's manager explained at the time that muscle injuries are notoriously difficult to put an exact timeline on. "He will be some weeks off. It's a muscle injury and [with] muscle injuries it is difficult to say one day, but normally I always put [it] as one month," the manager said. He added that the recovery period could vary depending on how the injury responds to treatment: "If it goes very good the injury is a little bit less, if [not] it goes a little more. It's not massive, it's a normal muscle injury, [but] I think it's going to be impossible to have him for the start of the season because we are not so far [away]. It shouldn't be a lot more." The setback is the latest in a long line of fitness issues that have disrupted Gomez's career at Anfield, though he is now targeted to return on September 4 against Ipswich.
Federico Chiesa is in a similar position, having missed Liverpool's first two league matches of the campaign because of a separate muscle problem picked up during pre-season. Speaking before the fixture against Nottingham Forest, the manager confirmed the Italian forward was unavailable. "Fede is not available," he said. "In the [pre-season] game against Como he felt something at the back and it's a small muscle injury. He is not available." Like Gomez, Chiesa is being targeted for a possible return when Liverpool travel to face Ipswich on September 4.
The outlook is far less optimistic for Hugo Ekitike, who enjoyed a breakout debut season on Merseyside before his campaign was cut short in April by a ruptured Achilles tendon. The striker had scored 11 goals in 28 Premier League appearances and added three more in the Champions League prior to the injury. He remains sidelined and, according to the manager, supporters should expect a wait of several months before he is fit to return, with a realistic timeline pointing towards late 2026.
Right-back Conor Bradley remains another long-term casualty, having been ruled out since January following a serious knee injury sustained during a match against Arsenal. The injury required surgery and ended his season prematurely. Liverpool have since bolstered their right-back options with Jeremie Frimpong, Calvin Ramsay and Ronald Araujo all vying for minutes in that position while Bradley continues his rehabilitation, with his return also not expected until late 2026.
Centre-back Giovanni Leoni, meanwhile, suffered an ACL injury during Liverpool's Carabao Cup clash with Southampton last year, just months after arriving in England. Despite the severity of the injury, the 21-year-old appears to be progressing well. "In terms of order, I think the closest one to returning is Leoni," the manager said in late July, before addressing the club's other long-term absentees. "After that it 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." As things stand, Leoni is viewed as the frontrunner among Liverpool's seriously injured players to make it back onto the pitch first, though his return is also pencilled in for late 2026.
Based on reporting from standard-football.