Arne Slot is optimistic that Alexander Isak will be able to make a return towards the end of the season.
Image Credits: Imago Images
Arne Slot is confident that Alexander Isak will still have a part to play this season despite his lower leg fracture sustained against Tottenham Hotspur.
Monday night’s official statement confirmed that the Swede had undergone surgery for his lower leg fracture. The Swedish international, who was finally starting to look like Liverpool’s record-signing, will now the next few months on the sidelines.
With Mohamed Salah having departed for the Arica Cup of Nations and Cody Gakpo still nursing a muscle issue, the timing could hardly be worse for Arne Slot.
While Slot was frustrated with the nature of Micky van de Ven’s tackle—labelling the challenge “reckless” and suggesting it would result in serious injury “10 times out of 10″—he refused to write off Isak’s debut campaign entirely.
Speaking in his pre-Wolves press conference, the Dutch manager believes that his No.9 could still feature towards the end of the season – but also highlighted how disappointing the timing of the injury was:
“I’m confident he can [play a part in back end of season]. It’s been a really challenging and difficult period for him. You join a new club, he was very excited and you want to show immediately your qualities but that was simply impossible.”
“If you haven’t trained for two or three months at serious level, in this league you have to be on top of your game to impact a game of football. We knew it would take months. We knew it could take him time, that’s why he’s so unlucky he’s now injured as we all saw with his goals v West Ham and Tottenham he got closer to the player and player he was at Newcastle.”
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