Arne Slot was cautious in his update on Alexander Isak’s health after the Liverpool goalscorer was forced off injured against Tottenham Hotspur, warning that it was “not a good thing” to see his striker limp off with the caveat that he was just going off a “gut feeling.”

One swipe of Isak’s left foot proved devastating in both senses of the word. Ushered off the bench at half time to take advantage of a Spurs side reduced to 10 men, Liverpool’s record arrival needed just 11 minutes to break the deadlock on Saturday night.

Florian Wirtz slid a perfectly weighted pass into Isak’s stride after Liverpool won the ball high in Tottenham’s half, teeing his fellow summer recruit up for a first-time finish over Guglielmo Vicario. Spurs centre back Micky van de Ven had come careening across the box in a desperate attempt to cover for his errant teammate Cristian Romero. The Dutch defender missed the ball, but got plenty of Isak, whose left knee appeared to twist awkwardly while his studs were caught in the turf under the weight of Van de Ven.

Isak’s celebrations never began. The 26-year-old was left writhing in a heap on the turf. After lengthy medical attention, he had to be helped off the pitch with an arm draped across two physios.

Speaking immediately after the 2–1 win, Slot was wary of providing any firm updates. “We’ll have to wait and see,” he warned. “It is too short after the game to speak about it but it is never good when a player has to come off.”

“I don’t have any news on him,” the Liverpool boss reiterated in his postmatch press conference, “but if a player scores, then gets injured and then doesn't come back on the pitch and doesn’t try to come back ... that’s usually not a good thing.

“But I cannot say anything more than that, that is just [a] gut feeling. Nothing medical to say about it.”

Brief Isak Cameo Offers Slot Hope

Slot had not yet spoken to Isak by the time of his media duties and was keen to highlight the positives during his 11 minutes of action. The Dutch boss notably pointed out the connection between the club’s two most expensive signings of all time.

“It’s a good thing that he scored: a good goal, assisted by Florian Wirtz,” Slot highlighted. “I said last week already players are getting better and the team is getting better. Again, it wasn’t perfect today, especially not in the last 10 minutes, but in the meantime we pick up points and I see the team developing in a way I like to see.”

It was only Isak’s second Premier League goal for Liverpool—he is still waiting for his first at Anfield—and represented the first Wirtz had ever created for a teammate in England’s top flight.

The German playmaker has not been slow to tee up his teammates—Isak’s goal-bound shot was the 27th Wirtz has set up in the Premier League alone this season. Yet, the previous 26 had all been squandered.

Isak, in fairness, has not been particularly guilty in this regard—although that is largely due to circumstance. The injury-prone forward has only mustered 435 minutes alongside Wirtz this season. Quite when they will next get the chance to link up depends entirely on the severity of Isak’s troubling injury.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Gut Feeling’—Arne Slot Provides Alexander Isak Injury Update.

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