April 24 (UPI) — Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered a brutal knee injury Tuesday and could be out for the rest of the season, according to coach Jurgen Klopp.
The star midfielder went down in the 15th minute. He was chasing AS Roma’s Aleksander Kolarov on the play during the Reds’ 5-2 win in the Champions League semifinals at Anfield in Liverpool, England. Kolarov dribbled down the left side of the pitch on the play, before Oxlade-Chamberlain came flying in for a tackle. Kolarov landed on top of the Liverpool midfielder, as Oxlade-Chamberlain’s legs got caught under his body.
Oxlade-Chamberlain immediately grabbed his right knee and was in obvious pain as he was attended to by the Liverpool medical staff. He was removed from the pitch on a stretcher.
“Oxlade, it’s probably a really bad injury,” Klopp told BT Sport.
“If we can say that already before the scan, that’s never good news so that means for us it’s a massive blow, of course.”
“We have still a few very important games to go and the squad doesn’t get bigger in the moment, so we obviously need to be creative in the next few games.”
Klopp was asked by reporters after Tuesday’s match if Oxlade-Chamberlain’s season is over.
“It looks like it is,” Klopp said. “It doesn’t look good. I’m a very positive person and I hope it only ‘feels’ bad. We lost a fantastic player tonight, so my mood is not flying.”
Oxlade-Chamberlain’s World Cup status is also now in doubt. The England national team member was set to take the pitch with the squad on June 18 against Tunisia at the start of the group stage.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.