Hugo Ekitike is currently sidelined with a major Achilles injury, with Thierry Henry offering his verdict on the Liverpool striker, who has had a strong debut season in England
15:46, 01 May 2026
Liverpool forward Hugo Ekitike before his injury against PSG.
Liverpool forward Hugo Ekitike before his injury against PSG.(Image: Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images)
France legend Thierry Henry says Hugo Ekitike has already shown enough fight throughout his career to bounce back from the serious Achilles injury that he suffered while playing for Liverpool against PSG last month.
Ekitike faces months on the sidelines and will miss the summer's World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. But Henry believes that he has the right character to be able to come back stronger once he has recovered.
"I was watching the game and straight away you knew it was bad," Henry told Betway. "I felt sorry for him obviously, and as an ex-player, you think about the World Cup and everything else.
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"More importantly, he was playing for Reims, then he went to PSG and everyone thought that he might lose his way because he wasn’t playing. People thought he was never going to be that guy because he went there too early.
"What I loved was that he thought, 'OK, I’m not going to sit here and die on the bench with people thinking I’m done,' and he went to Germany and battled.
"He had an outstanding season. He comes to Liverpool, where people thought he was going to sit out for Alexander Isak, but no, he answered the call and did pretty well for his first season.
Hugo Ekitike winces in pain
Hugo Ekitike ruptured his Achilles tendon(Image: Xavier Laine, Getty Images)
"It’s not only about the World Cup; it’s what he had to go through at a young age, to come back and reposition himself, and now he’s going to have to do it again.
"He came to the ‘top of the mountain’ and now he’s fallen again, for different reasons. It must be very difficult for him mentally, but he had the belief to do it once and I’m sure he can do it again."
Ekitike has scored 17 goals for Liverpool in his debut season in the Premier League, but he and Isak have rarely been fit at the same time. Alongside Florian Wirtz, they will help form the post-Mohamed Salah plan.
And Ekitike has performed so well at times over the last few months that he has drawn comparisons to Henry himself.
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"I want to be that kind of player, but it’s Thierry Henry," the $106 million (£79 million) forward said on CBS Sports with the former Arsenal man in the studio. "I could never be Thierry Henry. I’m me.
"I'll take some stuff from his game, because obviously he’s an example and idol for me. But I want to do my own story. If I can take some things from his skill, that would be great because he scored a lot of goals."
Liverpool.com says: Ekitike has been really unfortunate, and missing out on the World Cup will be a hammer blow. Luckily, he is young enough that he should get another chance in the future.