Cody Gakpo's Absence Raises Concerns for Liverpool
Liverpool opened their Champions League league phase with a win over Atletico, but the night carried a jarring note: Cody Gakpo was nowhere to be seen.
No place on the bench. No late cameo. Not even in the squad.
The omission raised eyebrows, especially given the Dutch forward’s electric start to the season under Andoni Iraola. The answer came quickly enough. Gakpo had skipped Tuesday’s crucial training session after feeling pain in both adductors following his previous 90-minute outing, and the medical team decided not to take any risks.
Iraola, speaking after the 2–1 victory, cut a pragmatic figure. The issue, he stressed, is not a major injury. It is discomfort. But it was sharp enough to rule Gakpo out completely.
“I don't know [if he will be back for Fulham]. I hope so, but I don't know,” the Liverpool head coach admitted. “He doesn't have a proper injury, but he finished with niggles in both of the adductors the other day. We expected to have him for today, [but] it hasn't been possible. It's not a big thing, but the problem is we play here [again] in two days and a half.”
That schedule is the real villain in this story.
A flying start, abruptly paused
Gakpo’s absence comes just as he had begun to look like the sharpest blade in Iraola’s new attack. One goal and three assists from his first three games tell part of the tale, but the numbers barely capture the authority of his performances.
On Friday night, he went the distance again, running the show in a 2-0 win over Ipswich Town. He set up Alexander Isak twice, knitting moves together, drifting into pockets, stretching defenders who never quite worked out where he would pop up next. It was the kind of display that makes a manager build a game plan around you.
Then the brakes went on.
For Iraola, that is the tension of this early-season stretch: a player in full flow, but a body warning against overuse. The staff believe Gakpo’s adductor problem is short term, yet the calendar offers no breathing space. Liverpool are back at it in just two and a half days, at home again, this time against Fulham in another “very important game,” as Iraola put it.
Selection headaches in a brutal schedule
This is where the romanticism of form meets the reality of sports science. Gakpo wants to play. Liverpool need his creativity. The fixtures, though, are stacked mercilessly.
“I think now is a moment of recovery in these two days,” Iraola said, underlining the physical toll. “Let's see how Bradley has finished, how Cody is [and] if he can give us some minutes. If not, Rio, Victor, I think today everyone has done a big effort.”
That line reveals the balancing act. Iraola is already thinking in contingencies: minutes for Gakpo if he’s able, bigger roles for Rio and Victor if he is not. The squad has emptied the tank to edge Atletico; now it must reset almost instantly.
For Liverpool, the hope is simple. That this is just a pause, not a derailment. Gakpo has started the campaign as one of the defining figures of Iraola’s early tenure, a forward who not only produces but shapes the rhythm of games.
The question now is whether his body will let him keep up with a schedule that barely stops to draw breath.
