Liverpool's Squad Boost: Ekitike, Leoni, and Bradley Set to Return

Liverpool’s threadbare squad is about to get a quiet but significant boost.

The transfer window shut with gaps all over the pitch. No right-sided winger. No extra midfielder. No new right-back. A late push to prise Malo Gusto from Chelsea on loan went nowhere, with the London club unwilling to sanction a cheap deal for a player who can operate both at right-back and in midfield.

So Liverpool are left to ride it out.

The strategy now is simple: survive the early stretch, lean on what’s available, and wait for the treatment room to empty. On that front, there is finally some encouragement.

According to The Times, Liverpool expect Hugo Ekitike, Giovanni Leoni and Conor Bradley all to play a “chunk” of the season. Not a cameo week here or there. A chunk.

Given where they’re coming from, that’s no small claim.

Ekitike is actually the most recent casualty of the three, yet his lay-off still dates back to April. Bradley has been missing since the very start of the year. Leoni has been out since last September, closing in on a full year on the sidelines.

These are not minor knocks or routine muscle strains. The injuries have been serious enough that timelines have stayed deliberately vague. No one inside or outside the club can say with confidence what version of these players will return. Match sharpness will lag. Full fitness will take time. Simply getting them back onto the pitch is likely to be treated as a key step rather than the finish line.

That’s why the suggestion they could each contribute a meaningful portion of the campaign lands as such a lift. A “chunk” implies at least a sustained spell – a month or more – and, if things break right, possibly much longer for one or two of them.

Player Updates

Leoni is expected to be the first to re-emerge, with a return to contention not too far away. Liverpool will not rush him. After such a long absence, caution will trump desperation, even with the squad stretched.

Ekitike’s road looks a little longer. His involvement may edge closer to the Christmas period, but the expectation remains that he will still have a role to play before this season is out.

Bradley is the great unknown. Updates on the defender have been scarce, and clarity on both the full extent of his problem and a precise recovery date has been hard to find. The club’s late attempt to bring in another right-back hardly screamed confidence about his short-term availability.

Yet The Times’ line that Bradley, too, could feature for a chunk of the season cuts through that uncertainty. For a squad crying out for depth, particularly on that side of the pitch, Liverpool will cling to that as a rare piece of genuinely positive news in a window that left more questions than answers.