Gakpo's Fitness Concern Challenges Liverpool Ahead of Fulham Match
Liverpool opened their Champions League league phase with a gritty 2–1 win over Atletico, but one name on the team sheet told its own story. Or rather, the absence of one did.
Cody Gakpo, the in-form Dutchman who has been at the heart of Liverpool’s early-season surge, was nowhere to be seen in the matchday squad. He had already missed Tuesday’s key training session. By kick-off, the concern had hardened into confirmation: Liverpool would have to do it the hard way, without their most productive attacker of the campaign so far.
Head coach Andoni Iraola later lifted the lid. Gakpo, he explained, had picked up niggles in both adductors after his previous 90-minute outing. Not a “proper injury”, as Iraola put it, but painful enough to rule him out completely.
It is a cruel interruption to a flying start.
Blistering form, brutal schedule
Under his new manager, Gakpo has looked reborn. One goal, three assists in his first three matches. Constant movement, sharp touches, a constant threat between the lines. He has not just been contributing; he has been dictating.
His latest statement performance came on Friday night. Gakpo played the full 90 minutes and ran the show, teeing up Alexander Isak twice in a commanding 2–0 win over Ipswich Town. That outing underlined both his influence and the physical load he is carrying.
The bill has arrived quickly.
By the time Atletico rolled into town, those adductor niggles had flared. Liverpool chose caution. The Champions League opener would go ahead without him, even as the team battled their way to a narrow victory.
Iraola’s dilemma
The win over Atletico should have been a platform. Instead, it has left Iraola juggling risk and reward with barely a pause to think.
“I don’t know [if he will be back for Fulham]. I hope so, but I don’t know,” he admitted on the club’s official channels. The honesty matched the reality. Liverpool’s turnaround is brutally tight: “We play here [again] in two days and a half.”
That is the crux. The medical staff do not see a long-term problem, yet the calendar offers no breathing space. Push too hard and a minor issue can quickly become a major one. Hold him back and Liverpool go into another “very important game” without their most incisive creator.
Iraola made no attempt to hide the strain on his squad. He name-checked Bradley, Gakpo, Rio and Victor, folding Gakpo’s situation into a wider picture of fatigue and knocks after a heavy collective effort.
“Now is a moment of recovery in these two days,” he said. Recover, regroup, rethink. That is the only plan available.
Fulham looming, questions mounting
So Liverpool wait. They monitor, they assess, they hope.
Gakpo’s numbers speak loudly enough. One goal, three assists, three games. A full 90 minutes of high-intensity football just days before Atletico. Two assists for Isak in that Ipswich win. In a side still adjusting to a new manager and new demands, he has been the constant spark.
Lose that, even briefly, and the attack looks different. The patterns change. The threat shifts.
Iraola wants him for Fulham. He made that clear. But he stopped short of promises: “I hope we can have Cody with us, but I cannot guarantee it.”
Liverpool have their victory over Atletico. They have momentum in Europe. What they do not yet know is whether their early-season talisman will be fit to carry that surge into the weekend, or whether the schedule will claim its first major casualty of the campaign.
