Conor Bradley breaks silence on serious knee injury as Liverpool star undergoes surgery

Conor Bradley

Conor Bradley says his Liverpool "comeback starts now" after undergoing surgery on his season-ending knee injury.

The Northern Ireland international suffered the issue when hooking clear in the closing stages of last week's goalless draw with Arsenal and after leaving the Emirates on crutches later that night, further assessments on Friday confirmed the worst.

Bradley has not suffered anterior cruciate ligament damage but the injury is still serious enough to end his campaign early and head coach Arne Slot admitted it was an "enormous blow" for both the club and the player after the 4-1 win over Barnsley in the FA Cup.

And after going under the knife this week, Bradley has now posted on social media for the first time since the injury, saying: "A big blow but surgery is done so the comeback starts now.

It won't be for a little while but I already can't wait to get back playing for Liverpool and Northern Ireland. Thanks for all the support."

Liverpool have refused to place a timescale on how long the Northern Ireland defender will be sidelined for but the expectation is that he won't feature again at Anfield this term, leaving Slot with just Jeremie Frimpong, the versatile Joe Gomez and academy defender Calvin Ramsay to choose from at right-back.

Dominik Szoboszlai has also filled in several times this term in the unfamiliar role but Slot conceded after the win over the Tykes on Monday that the option was not an ideal solution long term.

First of all, let’s talk about [Bradley] because Trent Alexander-Arnold is leaving and Conor Bradley already replaced him a few times last season really well, and the year before I came he also had a good spell,"

Slot said."He felt and I felt the same, this is going to be your time and he missed so many games already because of mainly hamstring issues and coming back from that and being in a team, progressing, getting better and better, staying fit and then something like this happens.

"In a season before it started where he thought: 'This has to be my season' - and I thought the same - to maybe play six, seven or eight games is a big blow for him and I also think about Northern Ireland trying to reach the World Cup."

So it is an enormous blow for him but as a result of that it is a big blow for us as well, because I hope you don't think I would like to play Dominik Szoboszlai as a right full-back."

Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli came under fire after Bradley's injury for initially throwing the ball at the stricken Reds man before attempting to remove him from the pitch in stoppage time of the draw.

Gunners star Martinelli took to social media a few hours later to reveal he had messaged Bradley to offer an apology.

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