{"id":401639,"date":"2026-01-11T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/401639\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T20:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:08:11","slug":"arne-slot-hit-with-conor-bradley-injury-blow-as-he-vows-to-go-strong-against-barnsley-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/401639\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot hit with Conor Bradley injury blow as he vows to go strong against Barnsley | Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot has promised not to repeat last season\u2019s FA Cup gamble against Plymouth when Liverpool entertain Barnsley in the third round on Monday. One player he will not be able to select, however, is Conor Bradley after it was confirmed the right-back will have to undergo surgery on the knee injury he sustained in Thursday\u2019s goalless draw<\/a> with Arsenal and is likely to rule him out for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

Slot changed all 10 outfield \u00adplayers for the fourth-round tie at Home Park and was punished as Plymouth, then bottom of the Championship,\u00ad produced a huge shock to win 1-0<\/a>. Slot compounded his selection risk with an inexperienced bench that included only two senior players; Curtis Jones and Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez. Slot stands by his decision on the basis Liverpool were challenging for four trophies at the time. But with his team out of the Carabao Cup and a distant fourth in the Premier League this season, that pressure no longer applies.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast season I made the decision that some players needed to rest in the FA Cup because you cannot play every player every single time,\u201d Slot said. \u201cBut it\u2019s obvious that we\u2019re not in the League Cup anymore and the FA Cup has always been very important for us, but sometimes in a season where you are still competing for the League Cup, for the Champions League and the league, with the amount of players we had last season and have this season, you have to make choices.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I can guarantee you that on Monday you will see all the \u00adplayers you saw against Arsenal, maybe with some substitutions, but then they will be on the bench. So that\u2019s going to be different than last season against Plymouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slot also made 10 changes for this season\u2019s Carabao Cup exit against Crystal Palace<\/a> and he claims \u00adLiverpool\u2019s squad, already stretched before Bradley\u2019s confirmed long-term absence, could have suffered more problems had he not rested senior players that night.<\/p>\n

Arne Slot issues instructions to midfielder James McConnell, one of 10 outfield changes, during Liverpool\u2019s shock FA Cup fourth-round defeat to Plymouth last season. Photograph: Javier Garc\u00eda\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know in cup competitions things can happen, but you cannot compare Plymouth away with the players we played back then to \u00adBarnsley at home,\u201d said the head coach. \u201cI was just informed the last time Barnsley played against us they beat us in 2008 in our stadium. We take them very seriously. As we took Plymouth as well, and people would argue that if they look at the lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then I again have to tell them why we did this, and why did we play the League Cup against Crystal Palace with the players we\u2019ve played. That is because if we had played \u00adVirgil [van Dijk] and these players again maybe I would have missed out on them against Arsenal as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley has not sustained an ACL injury but there is damage to the bone and ligaments in the 22-year-old\u2019s left knee. He will have an operation in the coming days and faces a race against time to be fit for the World Cup should Northern Ireland qualify for the tournament via the playoffs.<\/p>\n

This is the latest injury setback Bradley has suffered since making his debut for Liverpool<\/a> in September 2021 and one that will be remembered for Gabriel Martinelli\u2019s reaction to the player as he lay stricken on the turf at the Emirates Stadium. Having dropped the ball on Bradley, Martinelli then tried to aggressively push him off the pitch, leading to angry reactions from Bradley\u2019s teammates. Arsenal\u2019s Brazilian winger subsequently apologised for his actions.<\/p>\n

Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 could be \u00adavailable against Barnsley, who are 17th in League One, having missed Liverpool\u2019s last two games with a hamstring problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot has promised not to repeat last season\u2019s FA Cup gamble against Plymouth when Liverpool entertain Barnsley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-401639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}