Liverpool may have been rocked by a potential injury to centre-back Ibrahima Konate in their Premier League match against Brighton on Saturday afternoon – with Paul Merson stating that the defender has gone off with an arm injury, with the defender being in ‘big pain’.
The Reds trailed 1-0 to the south coast side, with summer signing Ferdi Kadioglu opening the scoring after a quarter of an hour – but the worst was yet to come, with Konate limping off at half-time with an arm issue. The Frenchman was given treatment before limping off, using his shirt as a makeshift sling – before failing to emerge for the second-half, with Joe Gomez undergoing a warmup during the interval.
Speaking on Gillette Soccer Saturday, presenter Simon Thomas began by saying:
“Is a big injury worry looming for Liverpool, Merse?”
Merson responded by saying:
“Yeah it’s Konate. The half-time whistle has gone. It was a corner, there was a bit of a melee and he’s fallen. He’s gone off holding his wrist. I don’t know if it’s his shoulder or wrist, he’s broken his arm. It’s one of the two. He looks in bad pain. He’s a big lad.”
And Thomas finished by stating that the injury ‘didn’t look good’, adding:
“It’s not looking good. It’s not been a good half for Arne Slot’s side. He’s in absolute agony walking off.”
With Konate having featured in every game of the season so far, including scoring once against Wolverhampton Wanderers and assisting a goal against Bournemouth in back-to-back weeks, the Frenchman has become one of the main stars of Arne Slot’s team, with the Reds only dropping points in two of their nine games prior to today.
Konate, who only turned 25 in May, has made 104 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions and looks to be the natural successor to Virgil van Dijk – but whether he will be out for an extended period of time remains to be seen, with Slot likely to utilise Gomez or Jarell Quansah as his natural successors for the coming weeks.