Image Credits: Imago Images
Liverpool suffered a massive injury blow as Hugo Ekitike was stretchered off against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night. The France international was forced off in the first half of the Champions League quarter-final second leg at Anfield.
Speaking post-match about the injury, Arne Slot told Amazon Prime Video: “Not too good. I think we could all see that it didn’t look well and didn’t look good. Let’s wait and see what it will be.
“But we could all see it didn’t look good. In the second half he went home so I haven’t seen him yet. Losing a game is already very hard, especially in the way we lost it, but again – as it seems to be – losing a player is something we’ve had so many times this season.
“It’s especially very hard for him because you never want to be injured, especially not at this moment of time in the season.”
Ousmane Dembélé scored twice as PSG beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield to reach the Champions League semi-finals, sealing a 4-0 aggregate win.
After a tight first half, Dembélé broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute before adding a second in stoppage time. Despite an improved display from Arne Slot’s side, Liverpool failed to score and were eliminated by PSG for the second straight season.
According to CANAL+ Foot, Ekitike has sustained an Achilles tendon injury. The France forward will undergo further tests to determine how long he will be sidelined.
Ekitike suffered the injury while sprinting in the first half with no contact from an opponent. Mohamed Salah replaced him after half an hour.
Ekitike is in his first season at Liverpool after joining last summer from Frankfurt, and has scored 17 goals in 45 appearances across all competitions.
A long spell out would be a major setback for his hopes of making the France national football team squad for the World Cup in North America.
He started the match alongside Alexander Isak, who was making his first start since early December after recovering from a broken leg, while Florian Wirtz also featured from the start.
Slot has previously lamented how rarely his major summer signings have been able to play together this season. He said: “For 88 minutes until tonight we have played with Florian, Alex and Hugo, we added about 27 to that, and I would be surprised if we add more minutes to that this season. The good thing is Alex is back.”
