Image Credits: Imago Images
PSG star Achraf Hakimi has sent a message of support to Hugo Ekitike after his injury last night.
Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain was already a bruising night on the scoreboard, but the real damage came with Hugo Ekitike’s devastating injury blow at Anfield. The French striker collapsed off the ball in the first half, immediately clutching his Achilles before being stretchered off and replaced by Mohamed Salah.
According to reports in France, including L’Equipe, Ekitike has suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon, one of the most feared injuries in football.
Recovery from such damage is brutally long, with estimates suggesting around nine months before he can even return to full training. That timeframe effectively ends his Liverpool season and removes him from the conversation for France’s World Cup squad this summer.
In the wake of the injury, former team-mate Achraf Hakimi used social media to send a powerful message of solidarity. Posting a picture of the pair on his Instagram story, the defender wrote: “We are with you Hugo Ekitike! Stay strong!”
For a 23-year-old whose move to Anfield was framed as the launchpad to a major international breakthrough, the cruel timing could not be worse, with what should have been a defining World Cup now slipping away before it even began.
Slot said of the injury on Tuesday night:
“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.”
All that remains for club and country is to rally around Ekitike, hope his surgery and rehabilitation go as smoothly as possible, and trust that this setback becomes a detour rather than anything more serious.
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