Liverpool's Champions League Hopes Diminish After Ekitike Injury
Liverpool’s Champions League hopes took a brutal hit at Anfield on Tuesday night – and not just on the scoreboard.
Ekitike’s night ends in agony
With the tie delicately poised and Liverpool chasing down a 2-0 first-leg deficit against Paris Saint-Germain, Hugo Ekitike crumpled to the turf with nobody near him, just before the half-hour mark. No crunching tackle, no collision. Just a sharp movement, a slip as he tried to bring the ball under control – and then instant trouble.
The 23-year-old immediately signalled distress. Medics rushed on. The stretcher followed.
On Amazon Prime commentary, Alan Shearer captured the concern as replays rolled. Ekitike, he noted, had simply tried to control the ball and “sort of slipped over,” before adding: “He looks to be in pain… They are saying he has to come off. It doesn't look good at all.”
The images backed him up. Ekitike grimaced, then lay back, hands over his face, as Anfield fell quiet.
Fears over Achilles as Liverpool’s injury luck worsens
From the gantry to the radio booth, the diagnosis sounded ominous. Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock, watching for BBC Radio 5 Live, focused on where the striker was pointing.
“There was nobody around Hugo Ekitike and he has damaged his ankle. He is pointing towards his Achilles which is a real concern,” Warnock said. “He got back up, and he just collapsed to the floor. Marquinhos had hold of his hand, and he is in agony.”
For Arne Slot, it was another cruel twist in a season already scarred by injuries to key forwards. Alexander Isak, the club’s other marquee striker signing, has only just returned after fracturing his leg in December, making his comeback in the first leg in Paris last week. Now Ekitike, the man brought in from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer, was being carried away, his left leg carefully supported, his European night cut short.
The timing could hardly be worse. Any significant lay-off would not only rob Liverpool of a powerful, mobile focal point in attack, it would also threaten Ekitike’s chances of making France’s World Cup squad – a tournament that looked well within reach if he stayed fit.
Salah steps in, questions linger
As Ekitike disappeared down the tunnel, Mohamed Salah stepped into the fray. The substitution underlined the stakes on multiple levels.
Salah, who has been heavily linked with a summer exit, could be playing his final European campaign in a Liverpool shirt. Now he was being asked to rescue a quarter-final that had already tilted PSG’s way and absorb the emotional shock of losing a teammate in such distressing fashion.
Liverpool’s situation only sharpened the sense of jeopardy. Out of both domestic cups, miles off the pace in the Premier League title race, the Champions League represents their last realistic shot at silverware this season. PSG had already inflicted a 2-0 defeat in the first leg and might have won by more. The margin for error was thin. The margin for injuries, even thinner.
Ekitike’s own story added another layer. Once on PSG’s books, he managed four goals in 33 appearances for the French champions before moving on and eventually landing at Anfield. Facing his former club in a Champions League quarter-final should have been a night to savour. Instead, it ended with him strapped to a stretcher, the crowd applauding in sympathy rather than celebration.
Liverpool will wait for scans and medical bulletins. France will do the same. Until then, one question hangs over both club and country: how do you replace a striker whose season might have just ended in a single, lonely slip?
