Alexander Isak’s rotten Liverpool luck is showing no signs of easing off, writes Paul Gorst
For just a brief second, Alexander Isak will have been forgiven for thinking his Liverpool luck has changed. After gobbling up the sort of chance that has rarely presented itself since he became a £125m footballer at the start of September, his joy was quickly replaced by agony.
Having fired the Reds ahead at Tottenham from Florian Wirtz’s through ball, just 11 minutes after his introduction as a second-half substitute in North London, Isak was not even granted the ability to celebrate it as he was caught by a scrambling Micky van de Ven, whose sliding challenge immediately saw the Reds’ No.9 recoil and stay down on the turf.
It was cruel on Isak as he continues to try and get a foothold in his career at Anfield. Rather than build on the goal against the 10 men of Spurs, the Sweden international was instead forced to withdraw, with the aid of Liverpool’s medical team.
READ MORE: Liverpool fear Alexander Isak facing lengthy layoff with ‘significant injury’READ MORE: Alexander Isak injury latest as Arne Slot prepares for key Liverpool absence
As Isak hobbled off with the help of Dr Jonathan Power and Chris Morgan, Isak will have lamented his misfortune. How bad his fate really is is yet to be revealed publicly as Arne Slot gets set to update on the severity of the issue when he previews Saturday’s visit from Wolves on Tuesday at the AXA Training Centre. The initial feeling, however, is not optimistic.
Speaking immediately after the 2-1 win on Saturday, Slot conceded he was not in a position to offer much of an update so soon after the game, with the head coach admitting: “I don’t have any news on him but if a player scores, gets injured and doesn’t come back on the pitch or doesn’t try to come back, which Conor Bradley, for example did but I had to take him off and couldn’t come on.
“But if a player doesn’t try to come back it is usually not a good thing but I cannot say anything more than that. That is just a gut feeling and nothing more than that, nothing medical to say about it.
“I haven’t spoken to him about it yet but it’s a good thing he scored, a good goal assisted by Florian Wirtz. I said players are getting better, the team is getting better. It wasn’t perfect today, especially the last 10 minutes but we pick up points and are developing in a way I want to see.”
The early indications are that it is a lower leg issue as opposed to a knee issue with further scan results on Monday set to provide more clarity. The good news, of course, is that there has been little suggestion of ACL damage but Anfield officials are still braced for a significant, serious setback for a player who cost £125m at the start of September.
Slot is due to speak to the media on Tuesday for the visit from rock-bottom Wolves on December 27 and the head coach will be better placed to offer a more fulsome update on the injury to his No.9, who registered his third goal for the club with the strike against Spurs.
Any lengthy setback would be another hammer blow to a player who has been playing catch-up from day one at Anfield, owing to his late arrival and lack of pre-season schedule, due to his bitter exit from Newcastle United, where he pushed hard behind the scenes to secure his dream move.
For a player who has needed his fair share of good fortune to have ridden out those circumstances and the subsequent pressure of his blockbuster switch to the Premier League champions, Isak has been desperately unfortunate.
That rotten luck, for now at least, is showing no signs of abating. How long until fans get to see the best of the most expensive player in British football history? That debate continues.
