‘I fear the worst’: Alisson out of Chelsea clash as Liverpool suffer double injury blow

Arne Slot admitted he feared “the worst” about Alisson after the goalkeeper went off injured in Liverpool’s Champions League defeat to Galatasaray.

The Brazilian suffered a suspected muscle problem as he made a save from Victor Osimhen and Slot was quick to rule him out of Saturday’s trip to Chelsea.

Giorgi Mamardashvili is poised to make his Premier League debut at Stamford Bridge as Liverpool are waiting to discover how long Alisson will spend on the sidelines.

Slot said: “When he sprinted back, he felt something. I cannot tell you because I am not a physician but normally when a player sprints back and feels something and goes to the floor and doesn’t come back to the pitch, nine times out of 10 I fear the worst.

“And with the worst I mean he cannot continue and that is what happened with Alisson. He will not be able to play Saturday, 99.9 percent, I have already said 100…”

Slot is more optimistic about Hugo Ekitike, who also came off injured, but warned the forward’s problem may be worse than he thinks.

“He felt something when he had to reach for the ball,” he added. “Hugo felt something. And after the game, that's always the difficult thing with these moments, when players feel like, ‘oh, it's not too bad’, but when you just walk around with something different, and when you make a spin, you have to shoot another one from the target. He said he couldn't continue, so we had to take him off. Let's see how he responds.”