Liverpool injury blow confirmed ahead of Leeds United clash but £60m star set for debut
Leeds United round off their pre-season tour of the US against Liverpool in Chicago on Sunday.
Liverpool will welcome back a host of first-team players for Sunday’s pre-season meeting with Leeds United - including a £60million summer arrival.
Leeds round off their US tour against the Merseyside club at Solder Field in Chicago on Sunday, with kick-off at 9pm UK time. Both sides head into the game off the back of 1-0 victories over Sunderland and Wrexham respectively, Daniel Farke’s side getting their win courtesy of a Lukas Nmecha strike overnight.
Like Leeds, Liverpool are starting to welcome back their World Cup stars with Ryan Gravenberch, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz back in training. And new boss Andoni Iraola has confirmed the trio will get minutes on Sunday alongside centre-back Jeremy Jacquet, who joined from Stade Rennais earlier this summer.
“My idea is for Ryan, for Florian, for Alex, for even Jeremy Jacquet to have their first minutes against Leeds,” Iraola said. “We’ll see how many minutes they can play but we have to start slowly, slowly integrating more of the senior players that have had less training sessions. I think they should be ready on the weekend to have their first minutes.”
Jacquet’s availability has come at a good time for Liverpool, who are short of experience at the back. Virgil van Dijk hasn’t joined the squad for their pre-season tour of America following his World Cup efforts, while Giovani Leoni has been out injured for almost a year.
Joe Gomez also missed victory over Wrexham after being forced off with a muscle injury just 10 minutes into Liverpool’s pre-season opener against Sunderland. Iraola confirmed the defender will miss Sunday’s meeting with Leeds and the start of the 2026/27 Premier League season.
“Joe has a muscle injury,” he added. “I think it was quite clear since he complained straight away, so it will depend how he evolves, but he will be some weeks off. It’s a muscle injury and [with] muscle injuries it is difficult to say one day, but normally I always put myself as one month.
“If it goes very good the injury is a little bit less, if [not] it goes a little more. It’s not massive, it’s a normal muscle injury, [but] I think it’s going to be impossible to have him for the start of the season because we are not so far [away]. It shouldn’t be a lot more.”
Leeds have a couple of their own fitness issues to manage heading into the weekend, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jaka Bijol yet to feature in the US. Sebastiaan Bornauw did return from a minor issue to start against Sunderland overnight, but goalkeeper Lucas Perri missed out with a knock.