Record signing expected back in “a couple of months”, says Liverpool’s manager
Arne Slot has condemned Micky van de Ven’s challenge on Alexander Isak, calling it “reckless” after Liverpool confirmed their striker will be sidelined for several months with a fractured leg.
Isak was injured while scoring Liverpool’s opening goal in Saturday’s 2-1 win away to Tottenham, his left leg trapped as Van de Ven slid in to block the shot. The Sweden international underwent surgery on Monday to repair an ankle injury that included a fractured fibula, and Slot said the operation had been successful.
Liverpool’s head coach said the club expects Isak to be out “for a couple of months”, a major blow for a player still finding his feet following his £125m move from Newcastle in the summer.
“It was a reckless challenge,” Slot said. “I’ve said a lot about the tackle of Xavi Simons, which for me was completely unintentional. I don’t think you will ever get an injury out of a tackle like that. But the tackle of Van de Ven, if you make a tackle like that 10 times, 10 times there is a serious chance the player gets a serious injury.”
There was frustration from Liverpool that no foul was given for the challenge, with referee John Brooks and VAR Stuart Attwell taking no action in a game that did see Tottenham reduced to nine men after red cards for Simons and Cristian Romero.
Slot remains confident Isak will return before the end of the campaign.
“I am confident he can play a part in the season,” Slot said. “It has been a really challenging and difficult period for him. He joined a new club, he was very excited and you want to show immediately all the qualities that you have. But that was simply impossible.”
The Liverpool manager pointed to Isak’s lack of a full pre-season and limited training time as factors in his slow start, with the 26-year-old managing just three goals so far.
“Maybe no one understands but if you have not trained for three or four months on a serious level with the team and you are playing in this league you need to be on top of your game to impact a game,” Slot said.
“We always knew it would take him time and that is why he is so unlucky that he is now injured, because we all saw with his goal at West Ham, with this goal against Spurs, that he got closer and closer to the player he was last season at Newcastle.”
Slot also dismissed suggestions that Isak’s injury was linked to workload issues.
“When you look at Alex’s injury, it has nothing to do with overloading the player,” he said. “Yeah, it was a reckless challenge.”
