Arne Slot described Hugo Ekitike’s injury as “really bad” after the France international was stretchered off during Liverpool’s Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.

On the night Alexander Isak made a surprise start following a lengthy lay-off, Ekitike was hurt with what appeared to be a serious lower leg injury just before the half-hour mark at Anfield.

The forward dropped to the turf with nobody near him and clutched his right ankle area, appearing in visible pain before receiving treatment surrounded by his team-mates.

He then left the field on a stretcher, to be replaced by Mohamed Salah, with Slot suggesting the injury was “not good” amid fears he had suffered an Achilles injury.

Speaking to Amazon Prime, Slot said: “He’s not good. We could all see that it didn’t look good. He went home in the second half so I haven’t seen him yet.

“Losing a game is hard but again losing a player is something we’ve had many times this season. It’s very hard for him at this time of the season.”

This doesn’t look good. The kid is distraught.

In his post-match press conference, Slot added: “It looks really bad but it is difficult for me to say how bad. Tomorrow we will investigate this further, how bad this is for him.

“Let’s see but that it doesn’t look good is clear.”

Ekitike has scored 19 goals for Liverpool and France this season and was likely to feature for his country at this summer’s World Cup if fit.

Ibrahima Konate added: “I’m very sad for him. I think it is bad.

“I don’t know. I heard many things, but I don’t want to talk about that because with the World Cup, all of the things coming this summer, it’s very hard for him at this moment. I send him my prayers and everything.”

Slot boosted by Liverpool display

Meanwhile, Slot took positives from Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final exit.

The Reds came into the second leg with a mountain to climb having been thoroughly outclassed in last Wednesday’s first leg at the Parc des Princes, where the holders’ dominance was not reflected by the 2-0 scoreline.

PSG’s missed opportunities allowed Anfield to dream of a famous comeback but it was not to be as key interventions and a controversially overturned penalty frustrated a vastly improved Liverpool.

Ousmane Dembele’s second-half brace eventually sealed PSG’s 2-0 second-leg win and progress to the semi-finals with a 4-0 aggregate triumph, but Slot took hope from a night that saw Liverpool’s final route to silverware end.

“We made a lot of progression compared to last week,” the Liverpool boss said. “I have to give a lot of credit to the players, how hard they worked.

“I have to give a lot of credit to our fans, how they helped us tonight to execute our gameplan. If we have a high press, it’s so helpful if there are fans behind you, to keep on pushing you.

“Unfortunately, it’s one of the many examples of this season where we weren’t able to score from the many chances we had.

“Again, we were so far underperforming in terms of xG [expected goals] and that is just an ongoing thing with us throughout the whole season.

“Add to that, as it seems to be a bad injury [to Ekitike]. We don’t know for sure yet. Add to that another intervention of the VAR, which went not in our favour and that’s also not for the first time this season.

“Of course we are very disappointed because there were parts in the second half where you could just feel if we can score now this is going to become a special night. But the future looks very bright for this team, because we’ve shown that we can compete with the champions of Europe in our stadium, to be the dominant team.

“Not many teams can be dominant against Paris Saint-Germain and generate so many chances as we did. But, yeah, chances is one thing, scoring is a second.”

Liverpool’s attention turns from pushing for Champions League glory to ensuring they qualify for next season’s competition as their Premier League campaign resumes with Sunday’s derby at Everton, live on Sky Sports.

Sunday 19th April 1:00pm


Kick off 2:00pm

‘Slot needs to qualify for CL to keep his job’

Tim Sherwood on Sky Sports:

“Liverpool were the better team tonight.

“I still think it was a penalty [for Liverpool]. There was contact into the back of the leg. He is entitled to go down with that contact.

“If they play like that, they will 100 per cent qualify for the Champions League.

“This tie was lost in the first leg. Why didn’t they go over there and have a go?

“Arne Slot needs to qualify for the Champions League to keep his job.

“But he has to be encouraged by that second-half performance.”