Liverpool could be left with just 15 senior outfield players available for their Champions League trip to LASK on Wednesday, with Andoni Iraola facing a significant selection crisis.
Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai were all ruled out of Sunday’s defeat to Manchester City with international injuries, and Iraola suggested after the match that it would be a surprise if any of them recovered in time for Austria. Giovanni Leoni, Conor Bradley and Hugo Ekitike are also unavailable through long-term injury.
Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo add to the problem: neither was selected in Liverpool’s 25-man Champions League squad for the first half of the season, with Iraola choosing to name the injured Ekitike instead, hoping he might return for the final two group matches in January.
Iraola could theoretically use a UEFA amendment allowing clubs to make one squad change during the league phase if an outfield player is ruled out for at least 60 days. Liverpool used this rule last season to call up Chiesa after Leoni’s ACL injury. But using it now would mean sacrificing Ekitike—his gamble on a potential January return—to cover the current shortage.
Iraola has already flagged the tight turnaround between the City match and the trip to Austria as a factor in injury recovery. Young players including Luke Chambers, Isaac Mabaya, Wellity Lucky, James McConnell and Jayden Danns could be used, but it is far from ideal.
Sources
How this story developed
- 12 Oct We first reported this.
- 13 Oct Liverpool Echo confirms Chiesa and Endo are ineligible for LASK, and adds Chiesa's ineligibility to the list of squad issues alongside the injuries already reported.
Updated 13 October 2026, 01:26. Written by PremClub News with the help of AI, using only facts from the reports listed on this page. How we rate stories · Editorial policy