Liverpool have confirmed that Hugo Ekitike (£9.2m) won’t feature again for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
The French striker was stretchered off in Tuesday’s defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, having slipped awkwardly in the first half.
And now, the Reds say that a scan has revealed a “rupture of the Achilles tendon”.
Ekitike will not just miss the rest of the domestic season but also this summer’s World Cup, where he would have been representing France.
HOW LONG WILL EKITIKE BE OUT FOR?
Media reports suggest Ekitike will be out for around nine months, which would see him not return until 2027.
Looking back through our injuries database, we can cite the example of Cheick Doucoure in 2023/24. He suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in November of that campaign, missing the rest of the season. He was, however, able to feature as a substitute in Gameweek 1 of 2024/25.
He’d even come back in a pre-season friendly in mid-July, which was an absence of eight months – although pre-season kickabouts obviously lack the intensity of a Premier League game.
HOW WILL LIVERPOOL LINE UP WITHOUT EKITIKE?
Advantage, Alexander Isak (£10.3m)? Certainly in the medium-to-longer term, and most definitely something to consider when we get to the start of 2026/27.
In the meantime, however, Arne Slot and Liverpool are managing the Swede’s minutes following months on the sidelines.
He was given two cameos off the bench before his first start of 2026 on Tuesday, but even that ended at half-time.
“To play him for 45 (minutes) and see at half-time how he feels to add five or 10 minutes to that, that was the possibility for today. But because we already had to make a substitution in the first half, I didn’t want to make the second substitution five or 10 minutes after half-time – that’s why I took him off at half-time.” – Arne Slot on Alexander Isak’s midweek minutes
Isak could yet start in the Merseyside derby this weekend but it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see a repeat of last weekend’s frontline, when Ekitike was an unused substitute. Cody Gakpo (£7.3m) led the line then.
We could see more of the 4-2-2-2 in the run-in, too, with two of Gakpo, Isak and Mohamed Salah (£14.0m) up top.
Stay tuned for an Ekitike replacements article, which will be out later in the day.
