Bradley will be sidelined for three weeks

NORTHERN Ireland defender Conor Bradley has been ruled out for up to three weeks after sustaining an ankle injury against Crystal Palace for Liverpool on Sunday.

The wing-back was brought off three minutes into the second-half at Anfield during Liverpool’s 1-0 loss, with fears it would be a significant lay-off for the Castlederg man.

However, scans have proven more positive than initially thought, with the Premier League club expecting that Bradley could be back in training as early as the start of next month.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had described the injury as a “very painful” one for Bradley at the time, but it appears the defender won’t have to miss a significant amount of time on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, Trent Alexander-arnold has confirmed that Klopp’s imminent exit is affecting Liverpool in the run-in.

The Reds face an uphill task to add to the Carabao Cup won earlier this season and mark Klopp’s send-off in style, having lost ground in the title race and facing a near-certain exit from the Europa League. Klopp announced recently that he will call time on his trophy-laden spell at Anfield at the end of the season, and Alexander-arnold says the news is having an impact.

“Having the experience of being in a title race will be a massive part of getting over the line, but obviously Arsenal and Manchester City will have that from last season,” he told Gary Neville on The Overlap.

“I think Jurgen Klopp leaving at the end of the season will feed into the title run-in. The fear that it gets to May and it’s still tight, then it’ll feed into how it’s going to look and how it could feel up until then.

“We just need to try and stay composed. The manager never says we’re trying to win the League, he doesn’t speak about it, but it’s more that we’re going to get the most out of ourselves, we’re going to squeeze every drop of potential there.

“There will be twists and turns no matter what, and I’m sure teams will try and win it, and we’ll come close to winning every single game between now and the end of the season, and we just hope we’re in the best position at the end of the season.”