Conor Bradley has become a hugely popular player at Anfield since breaking into the Liverpool first team, but the Tyrone man has also been frustrated by his persistent injury issues in recent seasons.

The Northern Ireland captain has suffered with a number of ailments, often resulting in lengthy spells on the sidelines.

His latest setback was a serious knee injury picked up during Liverpool’s draw at Arsenal earlier this month. That issue is likely to keep him out for the remainder of the season. He will also miss Northern Ireland’s World Cup play-off against Italy in March.

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Northern Ireland Boss Opens Up On Conor Bradley Liverpool Injury

Conor Bradley’s absence is certainly a big blow to the North’s chances of pulling off a shock result against the Italians, with the right back their standout performer during the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, manager Michael O’Neill opened up on the ‘complex’ nature of the player’s latest injury setback. He also said he hoped to have Bradley involved in the camp for the Italy game if Liverpool allow it.

It’s quite a complex injury. Everyone always fears an ACL. It’s a kneecap injury and we just have to give Conor as much support as we can. It’s a hammer blow for us that he’s out, but we have to deal with it…

Obviously if Liverpool give us the okay in terms of his recovery, he’d be with us in Italy…

I spoke to him before the operation and we’ve exchanged messages since. The operation was, I believe, a success. It’s too early to really say it’s a success.

It’s a difficult injury to put a time frame on but I think the most important thing when you have an injury like that is to have surgery without any types of complication.

Conor Bradley will be hoping to make a full recovery from this latest injury, although it is set to keep him out of some important games for both club and country over the coming months.

Liverpool could certainly do with him being available at the moment, with right back Jeremie Frimpong having suffered another injury during the win over Qarabag on Wednesday evening.

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