Two Injury Worries In One Week Is Starting To Look Like A Pattern For Liverpool

There is a particular kind of dread that settles over Liverpool supporters during international breaks, the sense that a routine week away with your country is about to turn into another entry on the treatment table. That feeling has arrived again. According to the Liverpool Echo, Cody Gakpo lasted barely sixteen minutes for the Netherlands before he had to be withdrawn, leaving Andoni Iraola with yet another fitness situation to monitor.

Bad Timing On Top Of Bad Timing

The frustrating part is where this lands in the calendar. Alexander Isak has already been pulled out of Sweden duty with what has been called a minor issue, and now Gakpo’s setback arrives on top of it just as Liverpool prepare for a heavyweight fixture against Manchester City at Anfield on October 11. Two of Iraola’s most important attacking players carrying question marks at the same time is exactly the sort of coincidence supporters dread, even before anyone knows how serious either problem actually is.

How The Gakpo Injury Unfolded

What makes Gakpo’s situation slightly unusual is that the report describes him going down without being challenged, which tends to point toward a muscular issue rather than a knock from a tackle. Liverpool have also confirmed Isak’s own withdrawal in fairly measured terms, stating that he will miss Sweden’s remaining fixtures in this camp and will be assessed by the club’s medical staff at the AXA Training Centre once he returns. Reassuring wording, but the sort of thing clubs say regardless of how a situation eventually plays out.

What Gakpo Has Meant To Iraola’s Side

Losing Gakpo for any length of time would hurt, and not just symbolically. He has started the campaign strongly under Iraola, chipping in with two goals and four assists across all competitions, and has looked like a genuine outlet in a Liverpool attack that benefits from his movement and directness. His form this season has also quietened the noise that followed him through a summer of transfer speculation, and it would be a cruel twist if an international knock undid some of that momentum just as City come to town.

Our Take

None of this is confirmed to be serious yet, and Liverpool fans have been here before with knocks that turn out to be nothing. But when your two sharpest forwards both pick up issues in the same international window, ahead of the exact kind of fixture where you need them most, it is hard not to feel uneasy. Iraola will be hoping his medical team have better news than the mood around this week suggests.