Arne Slot offers worrying Hugo Ekitike injury update after Liverpool striker stretchered off

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I didn’t see him at half-time and after the game he was already home.“Eighty-eight minutes until tonight we could play Florian (Wirtz), Alex (Isak) and Hugo and we added 27 or 28 to that and I’d be surprised if we could add any more to that this season.”On an evening when Ousmane Demebele’s late double provided decisive after Liverpool wasted a host of second-half chances, Slot was forced into another substitution in the second half when Joe Gomez, who had replaced Jeremie Frimpong at the break, was brought off after 67 minutes.And Slot explained: “Joe Gomez wasn’t injured. “I said before the game that if you go to extra time and he plays the second half and plays 45 minutes, there are only two minutes in between before extra time comes up for half-an-hour.

I don’t think that was realistic.“To play him for 45 minutes and see at half-time how he feels to add 5-10 minutes to that, that was a possibility today. But because we already had to make the first substitution in the first half, I didn’t want to make the second substitution five minutes after half-time.

That’s why I took him off at half-time.“He was twice close to a goal and that’s why you play a striker of his level. He was ready and if I thought he wasn’t ready then I wouldn’t have played him.“If you compare us today to last week, I think it’s fair to say he was completely ready to play otherwise you can’t play a first half as we did, although the second half was even better.”Choose Liverpool Echo as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.Arne SlotLiverpool FCUEFA Champions League