Eight Liverpool players to miss Champions League clash against LASK clash as Andoni Iraola turns to academy

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COMMENTSLiverpool have confirmed a triple fitness blow, with Alexander Isak, Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo all ruled out against LASK.

All three players had emerged as major doubts for Liverpool’s second Champions League game of the season after missing the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City at the weekend.

Isak sustained a thigh injury while on international duty with Sweden last month and Gakpo returned earlier than expected with an ankle issue.

Both were ruled out by Andoni Iraola before the Man City game and then Szoboszlai was a surprise absentee when the team news was announced around an hour before kick-off at Anfield.

“Dom came from the national team with tightness, an overload,” Iraola said after the loss to Man City. “We put him as a floater in the training and tried to protect him but he was feeling something very small.

“It’s true that now we play four games in 10 days, so it’s going to be difficult because we fly to Austria in two days. I think it’s going to be difficult to recover any of the players.”

Since that update, Liverpool released footage of Iraola’s squad taking off from John Lennon Airport on Tuesday afternoon en route to Austria for a Champions League away day.

Crucially neither Isak, Szoboszlai or Gakpo were spotted boarding the plane and their absences were confirmed shortly after with Liverpool naming a 23-man squad for the trip to Linz.

Iraola will provide an update in the pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Ruled out: Alexander IsakAFP/GettyAs expected, captain Virgil van Dijk has flown out to Austria as he prepares to bring up 200 appearances for Liverpool wearing the armband. He is joined by senior stars such as Alisson Becker, Joe Gomez, Florian Wirtz, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Bradley Barcola.

Josh Sonni-Lambie and Wellity Lucky are the academy players called up by Iraola, joining youngsters Lewis Koumas, Trey Nyoni, Rio Ngumoha, James McConnell and Luke Chambers in the squad.

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Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo are ineligible due to not being named in Liverpool’s Champions League squad, while Hugo Ekitike, Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni are out injured.