Liverpool's Injury Crisis: Araujo's Arrival and Center-Back Concerns
Andoni Iraola hasn’t even kicked a ball in the Premier League as Liverpool head coach, and already he’s staring at the club’s oldest recurring nightmare: an injury crisis at center-back.
Two weeks from now, Liverpool will be preparing for their 2026/27 opener at St. James’ Park. It should feel like anticipation. It feels like triage.
The Salah question still hangs over everything. There is no nailed-on replacement for Mohamed Salah on the right. If Bradley Barcola or Ibrahim Mbaye don’t walk through the door before the trip to Newcastle, Iraola can at least shuffle the deck out wide. Rio Ngumoha has shown enough to tempt a bold call, Federico Chiesa is proven at the highest level. There are workable answers on that flank.
At center-back, there aren’t.
Araujo arrives into a storm
Before news broke of Ronald Araujo’s impending move to Anfield, the situation bordered on farcical. Liverpool were staring at the very real prospect of starting a Premier League season with only one fit senior center-back.
Joe Gomez is already ruled out. Giovanni Leoni is still working his way back from an ACL injury and hasn’t rejoined full training. Jeremy Jacquet, despite reporting early for preseason, has yet to play a single minute this summer.
The Monaco friendly was supposed to be a useful barometer. Instead, doubts over Jacquet’s involvement only deepened the concern. If he misses that game at Anfield, the best-case scenario is a half of football against Como next weekend. Forty-five minutes, then straight into the Premier League for a first taste of English football? That is not the bedding-in plan any coach wants.
So Iraola is left with the obvious, slightly desperate solution: wrap Virgil van Dijk and Araujo in cotton wool and pray they can build a partnership on the training pitch rather than the treatment table. Every duel, every sprint in preseason, will be watched through half-closed eyes.
A self-inflicted problem
Liverpool know this story too well. Seasons have been bent out of shape by defensive injuries before. This time, though, there’s a nagging sense that the club walked itself into trouble.
Anyone glancing at the squad at the start of the summer could see the back line needed reinforcing. Araujo, as good as he is, feels like a late fix rather than the centerpiece of a long-planned rebuild. A deal that plugs a hole, not one that reimagines a defense.
Even with the Uruguayan on board, the margin for error is paper thin. One more injury, one awkward landing in training, and Iraola is back in the world of improvisation, trying to protect one of the most important areas of his team with players who don’t really belong there.
If he needs a reference point for that kind of juggling act, he doesn’t have to look far.
Slot’s template for survival
Arne Slot lived this reality last season. When Leoni went down with a serious knee injury in September, Liverpool were left with three senior center-backs to navigate the rest of the campaign. It was a tightrope walk from early autumn.
Slot never looked particularly rattled. He trusted the group, even with Gomez’s history of setbacks and Ibrahima Konaté’s patchy availability. Asked about the lack of depth, he cut straight to the point.
“Ryan (Gravenberch) and Wata (Endo) can play there,” he said. “So it is not like all of a sudden we don't have options in that position anymore.”
It was blunt, but it was also the reality. Endo’s ability to drop into the back line has been used several times across his three years at Liverpool. He reads the game well, holds his position, and doesn’t panic under pressure.
The problem for Iraola is timing. Endo has only just returned to training after his own injury. Throwing him straight into a Premier League opener at center-back, away at Newcastle, would be a huge ask, both physically and tactically.
That leaves Gravenberch as the next emergency option. He has stood in there before, but only fleetingly. You can’t build a full judgment on a 6-0 Europa League cruise against Qarabag in January. That night told Liverpool more about Qarabag than it did about Gravenberch the defender.
Still, when the squad is stretched, theory can quickly become reality.
No margin for error
Strip away the names and reputations and the picture is stark. If Van Dijk or Araujo picks up even a minor knock before Newcastle, Iraola is looking at a patched-up back line in one of the most hostile away grounds in the league. Gravenberch or Endo at center-back on opening weekend would be a glaring symbol of how tight Liverpool have allowed this situation to become.
This isn’t the way any new head coach wants to start a season. Iraola arrived to modernize and energize a squad in transition, to reshape Liverpool after the Salah era and squeeze the last elite years out of Van Dijk. Instead, his first major call might be whether to push a half-fit midfielder into the heart of his defense.
For now, the equation is brutally simple. Van Dijk must stay fit. Araujo must hit the ground running. And Liverpool, a club that once lost a title charge to a pile-up of defensive injuries, cannot afford to watch the same script play out again before a ball has even been kicked.
