Arne Slot spoke about the injuries suffered by Alexander Isak and Conor Bradley in Liverpool's win at Tottenham
Arne Slot has admitted Liverpool face an anxious wait after seeing both Alexander Isak and Conor Bradley forced off in their 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur. The Swede came on at half-time in place of the Northern Irishman, who had initially tried to play on after suffering a knock following a coming-together with Djed Spence.
Isak would open the scoring for the Reds in the 56th minute, finishing well when running onto Florian Wirtz’s through-ball. But he was injured in the process following Micky van de Ven’s attempts to slide in and stop him running through on goal.
Receiving lengthy treatment on the pitch, Isak was in visible pain as he then limped off supported by two members of Liverpool’s medical team.
OPINION
Speaking after the final whistle, Slot admitted he feared that the striker could be set for a spell on the sidelines but was unable to offer a definitive update on either Isak or Bradley.
“I don’t have any news on him,” he conceded. “But if a player scores and then gets injured, and doesn’t come back on the pitch, doesn’t try to come back - which is what Conor Bradley tried to do for example but I had to take him off as well because he couldn’t go on.
“But if a player doesn’t even try to come back, that is usually not a good thing. But I cannot say anything more than that, it is just a gut feeling.
“Nothing medical to say about it. I haven’t spoken to him about it yet.
“It’s a good thing that he scored. That is what we would like to see happening a lot. Good finish, good pass. A good goal assisted by Florian Wirtz.
“I said last week already that players are getting better, our team is getting better. Wasn’t perfect today, especially not in the last 10 minutes but in the meantime we pick up points and I see the team developing in a way I want to see.
“Let’s not be too negative yet. We don’t know yet (how serious the injuries might be). Let’s hope he is back with us soon. Difficult to say to you now.”
Slot would at least play down fears about Jeremie Frimpong after the Netherlands international was also forced off in the win with a facial injury.
The wing-back made his return from a hamstring injury when replacing the injured Isak, and set up the would-be winning goal for Hugo Ekitike.
But he then had to be replaced in stoppage-time as Liverpool looked to see out the victory.
Slot revealed that Frimpong was fine though as he explained his decision to withdraw the defender, insisting it was purely based on trying to protect the result
“No, Jeremie is no problem at all,” he said. “I didn’t want to go down to 10 men for 40 seconds.
“I think this is the only country where, if players, they need to go off for 30 seconds. With a head injury, even 45. So I adapted to that.
“I knew there wasn’t long to play and I thought we struggled a lot with a plus one. So playing 10 vs 10 for half a minute with him being on the floor, yes or no? No, just go with Federico (Chiesa).
“So no problem with him. But with Alex and with Conor, we have to wait. You could see our bench today but this is not the first time. We are not the only team that suffers injuries in this period in England because we play so many games.
“It is quite normal that teams pick up injuries at this time. We’re still picking up points and that is the main thing.”