Conor Bradley has sustained a serious knee injury and will be out for the remainder of the season, Liverpool have confirmed.
The right-back suffered the issue in the latter stages of Thursday night’s Premier League fixture away at Arsenal.
Bradley will undergo surgery in the coming days and then begin a period of rehabilitation at the AXA Training Centre, the club said.
No timeframe is being placed on his return to playing at this stage of the process, but he is expected to miss the rest of the season.
It is a significant blow to Liverpool and Northern Ireland, who play Italy in a World Cup playoff on March 26th for the chance to qualify for the tournament North America this summer.
Bradley had made 21 appearances this season for Liverpool having missed a number of matches with a hamstring problem.
It leaves head coach Arne Slot with Jeremie Frimpong, who has had his own injury problems since joining from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, and Joe Gomez, himself only just returning from a hamstring issue, as cover but neither can be considered a genuine right-back.
Slot has had to utilise midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones in the position this season.