Arne Slot gives bleak Wataru Endo injury update after Sunderland win | Football | Sport
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed Wataru Endo may be facing a lengthy spell out of action after being stretchered off during the win over Sunderland. The Japanese midfielder was selected out of his natural position in the starting XI for the Reds’ visit to the Stadium of Light, starting at right-back.
However, his night was cut short when he required medical assistance and a stretcher to leave the field in the second period following a relatively innocuous incident. When pressed on Endo’s condition, Slot has conceded the player could be absent from the squad for a considerable time. Speaking in his post-match press conference, he said: “Yes, it’s a serious one. How serious we don’t know yet because it still has to be assessed tomorrow, but it doesn’t look good.
“I’m not too sure [if it’s his ankle]. It’s his foot, but if it is his ankle or his foot, that is what we have to assess tomorrow.
“I assume he will be out for a long, long time. What is long, it is difficult to say at this moment but you can hardly believe what this right full-back position brings us this season.”
Endo’s setback overshadowed what had otherwise been a superb evening for Liverpool in the North East. Virgil van Dijk’s decisive strike secured all three points and reduced the deficit to the top four to merely two points.
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When questioned about his team’s display, Slot added: “It didn’t feel to me at all as a struggle because I think we played really, really, really well again. We didn’t face the weather, we faced Sunderland, who were until tonight unbeaten at home.
“They are a good team, [have a] good manager and [have a] difficult playing style to play against because, as we know from the game we played at home against them, it’s a lot of long balls you have to defend and a lot of balls into the channels. I think we did that really well.”
“We controlled the second ball really good and from that second ball, we played some very good football. What I’m getting used to more and more now is that we miss a lot of chances, which we did tonight again.
“But the big exception for us tonight compared to all the other games we played against promoted teams, or teams that we were the better team, we were not able to score from a set-piece. Usually we concede one, but tonight we could score and that’s the difference for us in this game.”
Liverpool now shift their focus to this weekend’s FA Cup encounter with Premier League opponents Brighton at Anfield. They then face Nottingham Forest in their subsequent league fixture as they maintain their pursuit of a Champions League place.
