Four Names, Four Different Recovery Clocks Before Liverpool Travel To Turkey
Liverpool land in Turkey this week needing a reset rather than a reaction. The Arsenal defeat was bad enough on the scoreline alone, a single shot on target in a home league game says plenty on its own, and the gap at the top of the Premier League has now stretched to nine points. The Champions League picture is a completely different story. Three wins out of three against Atletico Madrid, LASK and Villarreal mean a win over Fenerbahce would put Andoni Iraola’s side firmly in control of their own group, and that matters more than usual given how threadbare this squad has looked at various points this season.
There were small mercies against Arsenal at least. Dominik Szoboszlai and Victor Munoz were both back involved, giving Iraola two extra bodies to call on immediately. Beyond that pair, nobody should expect a flood of returns before Thursday. Here is where the main injury situations actually stand, and what each one means for the weeks ahead.
Jeremie Frimpong: another setback, another wait
Frimpong’s first season at Anfield has been defined by fits and starts rather than any real run of matches. The latest issue, a muscle injury picked up during the comeback win over Brentford last month, follows the same pattern as his previous spells on the sidelines. Iraola has been candid that the recurrence makes a firm return date hard to pin down, and has already flagged that getting him back before the November international break looks unlikely. That points towards six consecutive matches missed by the time he is fit again.
It leaves a right back position that was supposed to gain pace and directness from his signing instead relying on makeshift cover far more often than anyone at the club would have planned for. Frimpong was recruited specifically to add that extra gear going forward, and a player who cannot string matches together cannot offer that, no matter how good he looks in the twenty or thirty minute bursts he has managed so far. The hope has to be that a settled block of training after the international break finally breaks the cycle.
Conor Bradley: the one genuinely positive update
Bradley’s situation is heading in the right direction, which counts for something given how long he has been absent. The knee injury, suffered late last season and requiring surgery on bone and ligament damage, has kept him out for months, but his progress through rehabilitation has reached the stage where a return to full training is realistically close. Thursday’s trip almost certainly comes too soon, but for the first time in a while his comeback is something concrete rather than a vague hope on a medical update sheet.
Given how stretched Frimpong’s position has been, having Bradley back in contention eases one of the squad’s clearest pressure points. The two offer different things, Bradley the more reliable, defensively sound option, Frimpong the higher ceiling going forward, and Iraola having a genuine choice between them again would be the first piece of good fortune that position has had all season.
Hugo Ekitike: the comeback timeline is moving forward, not back
Ekitike remains the longer term concern of the four, having not played since rupturing his Achilles tendon in the Champions League quarter final against Paris Saint-Germain back in April. The initial recovery window given was nine to twelve months, which would always have meant a slow, cautious process regardless of how smoothly it went. What has changed is the tone around it. There is growing suggestion, including reports out of France, that he is targeting a return before the turn of the year rather than waiting for the far end of that window, following a visit to a specialist in the United States.
Liverpool will not rush an Achilles injury no matter how encouraging the noise sounds, that much should be obvious after a season already disrupted by injuries elsewhere in the squad. But his continued inclusion in European squad plans suggests the medical staff are at least leaving the door open for the January double header against Inter Milan and Lens. With the forward line needing fresh legs and a different kind of movement up front since the summer’s changes, a fit Ekitike before the turn of the year would be worth considerably more than just squad depth.
Giovanni Leoni: a lost first season, and no shortcuts back
Leoni’s debut campaign has essentially been written off before it ever really started. Signed from Parma for around £26m, his only senior appearance came in the Carabao Cup against Southampton back in September 2025, a game that ended with him being stretchered off after an awkward landing near the touchline. The diagnosis, an anterior cruciate ligament tear with further damage around the knee, explains why his recovery has dragged well past the early estimate given at the time.
Iraola has been straightforward about the setback, admitting the wider damage beyond the ACL itself cost the club roughly a month in the rehabilitation timeline alone. The realistic marker to watch for now is a return to grass work around the November international window, with anything resembling competitive football still some way beyond that. It is a harsh introduction to Anfield for a young defender signed with the long term in mind, and the smartest thing Liverpool can do is exactly what they appear to be doing, refusing to rush a knee that has already cost a season once.
Where this actually leaves Liverpool
None of this gets resolved in time for Fenerbahce, and pretending otherwise would be wishful thinking. But taken together, the picture is marginally less bleak than it was a few weeks ago. Bradley is close, Frimpong at least has something resembling a timeline now rather than an open ended one, and both Ekitike and Leoni, while still some way off, are moving forward rather than stalling or regressing further.
Liverpool’s immediate job is simpler than any of that. Win in Turkey, settle the Champions League group with a game or two to spare, and buy the treatment room enough time to actually empty out rather than just shuffle names around on a list. The Premier League gap is a problem for another day. Thursday is about doing the straightforward thing well, and hoping the squad that does the job looks a little less patched together by Christmas than it has for most of this autumn.