Bradley has been sidelined since January, when he suffered serious knee ligament damage against Arsenal, Sky Sports reported at the time. Eight months on, Iraola told reporters on Monday that the Northern Ireland international is not close to rejoining the group.

“He’s not close to training with the team. He’s training alone, but he started touching the ball,” Iraola said.

The head coach measured Bradley’s timeline against that of Giovanni Leoni, another long-term absentee.

“These long-term injuries, I think Leoni is a little bit ahead of him, and still it’s gonna take some time for Conor,” Iraola said.

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Any hope of a late-autumn return has faded. Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill put a more realistic bracket on the recovery earlier this month.

“If we see him this side of Christmas, it will be a real bonus but if not then we look forward to March,” O’Neill told Anfield Index.

A centre-back and a midfielder at right-back

Bradley’s absence would be manageable if the rest of the flank were healthy. It is not. Jeremie Frimpong has been in and out of the side, Joe Gomez has managed only a handful of full matches in the last year, and summer signing Giovanni Leoni was lost before the campaign properly began.

That has forced Iraola to improvise. Ronald Araujo, signed on a season-long loan from Barcelona on 10 August with an option to buy, has been pulled out of central defence to fill in on the right. Dominik Szoboszlai has also taken shifts there, and Iraola confirmed the Hungary midfielder is “ready” to keep doing so, even though the player would rather stay in central midfield.

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Iraola tried to make a virtue of the versatility earlier this month.

“It’s good also to have players who can cover different positions. Especially now that we have some injuries,” he told Yahoo Sports.

Iraola faces his old club next

The schedule is not about to ease. Liverpool travel to Bournemouth on Sunday 20 September for Iraola’s first meeting with the club he left in the summer to take the Anfield job. It is the type of fixture in which Bradley’s overlapping runs and defensive reading have been most valuable, and it is one Iraola will have to navigate with a makeshift right-back.

Sources: – [Liverpool appoint Iraola as new manager](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/4/liverpool-appoint-spaniard-iraola-as-new-manager-in-place-of-slot) – [Bournemouth vs Liverpool 20 September 2026](https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/401879276/liverpool-afc-bournemouth) – [Liverpool agree Araujo loan](https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/liverpool-agree-deal-sign-ronald-araujo-loan)

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