The Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike will miss the rest of the season and the World Cup with the injury he sustained against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, Didier Deschamps has confirmed.
Ekitike suffered a suspected achilles tendon rupture in the first half of Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final second leg defeat and could be sidelined until next year as a result. The full extent of the 23-year-old’s injury has not been confirmed – he underwent scans on Wednesday and Liverpool are expected to provide an update later this week – but the head coach of the France national team has ruled Ekitike out of his plans for this summer’s World Cup.
“Hugo suffered a serious injury against PSG on Tuesday night,” said Deschamps, whose team play group games against Senegal, Iraq and Norway in the United States. “Unfortunately, the severity of his injury will prevent him from finishing the season with Liverpool and from taking part in the World Cup.”
Ekitike is Liverpool’s leading goalscorer this season with 17 goals in all competitions and his absence represents another serious blow to Arne Slot with six games remaining to secure Champions League qualification.
The forward was signed from Eintracht Frankfurt last summer in a deal that could rise to £79m and has been the pick of Liverpool’s expensive recruitment drive. The second leg against PSG, one of Ekitike’s former clubs, was only the second time that the forward, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz had started a game together for Liverpool and the first time they had done so at Anfield. The trio, signed for a potential £320m in total, have shared a pitch for merely 115 minutes this season.
Ekitike’s absence increases the importance of Isak getting up to speed after four months out with a fractured leg and ankle injury. A long-term layoff also impacts Liverpool’s plans for next season with Mohamed Salah leaving Anfield this summer.
