‘Special’ Liverpool player needed treatment after picking up another injury on international duty

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There is a reason Liverpool fans dread the international breaks during the early part of the season.

After navigating through the first few games of the campaign under the watchful eye of the Reds’ coaching staff, players are suddenly thrust into new environments.

Unfortunately, with international staff perhaps not quite as clued into the fitness of the players after pre-season, this can lead to injuries.

All in all, that is not something which has caused too many problems for the Liverpool squad ever since Arne Slot arrived in 2024.

Slot and the Liverpool coaching team appear to be doing something very right, and have drastically reduced the number of fitness issues at the club.

However, one player who has continuously struggled within that is Conor Bradley, who has played only once for Liverpool so far this season. And as he starred for Northern Ireland against Germany on Sunday, the right-back appeared to pick up a new little problem.

Conor Bradley picks up ‘facial injury’

For a player who has as many fitness setbacks as Bradley, the international break is always a nervous time.

Nevertheless, this September’s matches arguably came at a good time for the 22-year-old. After missing most of the season so far, he was able to play 167 minutes across his nation’s two games.

READ MORE: Liverpool fans have a lot to say about Dominik Szoboszlai and Milos Kerkez after Hungary draw with Ireland

The latest of those came on Sunday evening, where Bradley and Northern Ireland were punished by Florian Wirtz, who scored a stunning free-kick in a 3-1 Germany win.

Bradley played the full match, and according to the Belfast Telegraph, he was one of his team’s best players on the pitch.

The Liverpool man is handed an eight out of ten rating, hailed for his ‘discipline’ and for ‘making some big tackles’, one of which eventually led to a yellow card.

Unfortunately, it is also noted that Bradley needed treatment for what is described as a ‘facial injury.’ Fortunately, the defender carried on and completed the game, but this may still cause concern at Liverpool.

Will Bradley start against Burnley?

After Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure for Real Madrid, this was supposed to be the season in which Bradley made himself Liverpool’s starting right-back.

That has not happened so far, largely because of injury. But after getting plenty of minutes in the tank across this week, Bradley should be ready to play, as long as there is no lingering damage here.

Whether Arne Slot starts him against Burnley this weekend, however, remains to be seen.

As Micah Richards noted in April, Bradley is a ‘special’ player on his day, but Dominik Szoboszlai has been excelling at right-back recently and Jeremie Frimpong is expected to be fit as domestic football returns as well.

If Bradley is deemed fully fit, however, we expect that he will finally have the chance to be on the teamsheet for Liverpool.