At the press conference ahead of Liverpool FC’s visit to London to play Brentford, head coach Andoni Iraola provided updates on the rehabilitation of long-term absences Hugo Ekitike, Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni.
On our tall Italian centre-half, Iraola had this to say:
“It is taking more time than we wanted. With Gio the planning was to train with team in last international break. It’s probably going to be the next one, so we’ve lost a month in the process. His injury wasn’t just an ACL, it was a bad
injury, a lot of things around the knee. He has to be very confident and the process very careful with him. We have to make sure once he comes in the team he comes there in a good place. We have not had a setback but a delay if you want. It’s a bit later than we expected.”
It is better looking on the horizon for Conor Bradley and Hugo Ekitike:
“They are both doing very well. I think they are in a good place. Conor is not so far from training with the group – not like full training, but doing some things with the group. Hugo is a little bit behind that, but that was always the plan. He is still doing very well according to the plan.”
Hopefully everything goes smoothly. Their returns will be a big boost to a Liverpool squad that’s still finding its feet and is a little thin on numbers. We get those three back, and suddenly the depth chart looks a whole lot more reassuring.
