Florian Wirtz injury: what Liverpool said and the games at risk
Florian Wirtz injury update: Liverpool call his ankle twist small but give no return date. The confirmed facts, the guesswork and the four games at risk.
Why it matters
Wirtz is one of Liverpool's most expensive signings, and they play Chelsea and Arsenal at home within five days. Whether he plays depends on an assessment the club has not yet shared.
Florian Wirtz twisted his ankle in Liverpool’s 2-0 Premier League win over Brighton at Anfield on Sunday, 25 October, and head coach Andoni Iraola could not say whether he will face Chelsea on Wednesday. No diagnosis or return date has been given.
So the question most fans are asking, how long Wirtz will be out, has no official answer yet. What does exist is one short comment from Iraola, a crowded run of fixtures and a solid body of research on how long ankle injuries keep professional footballers out.
“A small twist”: everything Liverpool have said
“Unfortunately, he had to leave the pitch with a small twist of the ankle,” Iraola said after the match, according to Hayters TV and DAZN. “It doesn’t look very big but we are playing every three days so we need to see where he is.”
That is the whole official record. There has been no statement on liverpoolfc.com, no scan result and no estimated return date as of Sunday evening. Some coverage since has blended those words with guesswork.
| Claim | Status | Who says so |
|---|---|---|
| Wirtz twisted his ankle and went off after 65 minutes | Confirmed | Iraola; match reports |
| Iraola called it a small twist that “doesn’t look very big” | Confirmed | Iraola, after the match |
| A diagnosis, scan result or return date | Not released | Liverpool have said nothing yet |
| He misses Chelsea on Wednesday | Unconfirmed | Media reports call him a doubt |
| He is held back for Arsenal on Sunday | Speculation | Some UK reports; not said by the club |
Source: Daily Summit review of Iraola’s comments and match reports, 25 October 2026.
The 65th minute against Brighton
Wirtz had a hand in the opening goal. His low shot in the 17th minute took a heavy deflection off Brighton’s Pascal Gross and went in for an own goal, and Alexander Isak made it 2-0 four minutes later. In the second half Wirtz needed treatment on the ankle and was replaced by Trey Nyoni after 65 minutes, according to RotoWire and Dave Sport.
The win was Liverpool’s fourth in a row in all competitions and their first home league win under Iraola.
Chelsea, Arsenal, Istanbul, Selhurst Park: the run he could miss
Iraola’s “every three days” line is the heart of the problem. A knock that would cost a week in a quiet month can cost four matches in this one.
| Date | Match | Competition | Kick-off (GMT) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 28 Oct | Liverpool v Chelsea (Anfield) | Carabao Cup, fourth round | 20:00 |
| Sun 1 Nov | Liverpool v Arsenal (Anfield) | Premier League | 16:30 |
| Wed 4 Nov | Fenerbahce v Liverpool (Istanbul) | Champions League | To be confirmed |
| Sun 8 Nov | Crystal Palace v Liverpool (Selhurst Park) | Premier League | To be confirmed |
Source: Liverpool FC fixture list and Premier League listings, checked 25 October 2026.
The Chelsea tie is live on Sky Sports and ITV in the UK, the club said. After Palace comes the mid-November international break, and Manchester United visit Anfield on 22 November.
What the research says about ankle sprains in elite football
Liverpool have not said what kind of ankle injury this is. The commonest in football is a lateral ankle sprain, a stretch or tear of the ligaments on the outside of the joint, usually caused by the foot rolling inward.
The best recent numbers on lay-offs come from a German study published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine in 2025. The researchers (Flore, Hambly, De Coninck and Welsch) followed 798 male players across 34 teams at 13 German professional clubs during the 2021-22 season. Sprains were graded by severity, and the average time lost rose steeply with each grade.
| Sprain grade | What it means | Average days lost |
|---|---|---|
| Grade I | Ligament stretched, no tear | 14.7 |
| Grade II | Partial tear | 39.2 |
| Grade III | Complete tear | 50.5 |
Source: Flore et al., BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 2025.
First-team professionals in the study came back faster than youth players, after 15.5 days on average. The authors do not treat that as good news. They argue that lateral ankle sprains are undertreated in elite football, that professionals often return before the ligament has had time to heal, and that shorter time out was linked to sprains coming back. Among the professionals, 20% had a repeat sprain within the 12-month follow-up.
A touchline check cannot rule out something worse. A syndesmotic, or “high ankle”, injury damages the ligaments that bind the two lower leg bones together. A study of 3,677 players from 61 teams in 17 countries over 15 seasons, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2019 by Lubberts, Ekstrand and colleagues as part of UEFA’s Elite Club Injury Study, found these kept players out for 39 days on average.
In March 2025 at Leverkusen, an early MRI scan raised fears of a syndesmosis tear before the final diagnosis came back as a less serious ligament injury, according to German reports at the time.
Two right-ankle injuries at Leverkusen
Wirtz has been here before, both times with his right ankle. Liverpool have not said which ankle he hurt on Sunday.
- October 2024: He hurt his right ankle playing for Germany against the Netherlands in the Nations League. Leverkusen called it a minor capsular injury but would not say when he would train again.
- 8 March 2025: He damaged a medial ligament in his right ankle against Werder Bremen. Leverkusen said he would be out for several weeks, and he missed the Champions League second leg against Bayern Munich.
Liverpool signed him last year in a deal Reuters reported could rise to £116 million ($153 million), and the agency has reported that he struggled at first with the physical side of the Premier League. In eight Premier League appearances this season Wirtz has two assists and has created 22 chances, according to RotoWire’s data.
How to read the next Liverpool update
The research gives a useful yardstick. If Wirtz is named in the squad for Chelsea or Arsenal, the injury was at the very mild end. If he misses both, compare the timeline with the German study: the professional average of about 15 days would take him close to the Palace game on 8 November, while anything in the grade II range would run past the international break.
The words to listen for are “syndesmosis” and “high ankle”. If either appears in a club update, the 39-day average from UEFA’s study is the better guide, and the international break stops being a bonus and becomes part of the recovery.
The first real clue comes with Liverpool’s team news before Chelsea on Wednesday at 20:00 GMT.
