Liverpool boss Arne Slot hits out at 'reckless' Micky van de Ven tackle

Arne Slot has slammed Micky Van de Ven's reckless tackle that has led Liverpool's record signing Alexander Isak to face a lengthy lay-off.

The Sweden international damaged his left ankle and fractured his fibula when scoring Liverpool's opening goal in their 2-1 win at Tottenham on Saturday; he was injured after Van de Ven slid in forcefully to block a shot.

Neither the match officials nor those overseeing the game on VAR deemed it necessary to look at the Netherlands international's challenge but there was anger within Liverpool's camp after they had chance to see replays.

Isak underwent successful surgery on Monday and Slot is confident the £125million striker will be available again before the end of the campaign, providing his rehabilitation goes to plan.

But there was no disguising his unhappiness over the incident and Liverpool's head coach said: 'It was a reckless challenge. I've said a lot about the tackle of Xavi Simons, which for me was completely unintentional.

'I don't think you will ever get an injury out of a tackle like that. But the tackle of [Micky] Van de Ven, if you make a tackle like that 10 times, 10 times there is a serious chance the player gets a serious injury.

'It is going to be a long injury for a couple of months. That's a big, big disappointment for him and, as a result of that, also for us.'

There is no doubt Isak is devastated and Slot is aware of the role he will personally have to play to lift his spirits.

'It's been a really challenging and difficult period for him,' said Slot, who may have Conor Bradley and Cody Gakpo available for Liverpool's weekend game against Wolves.

'Usually when you join a new club – he was very excited as well – you want to show all the qualities you have but that was simply impossible.

'Maybe no-one understands but if you haven't trained on a serious level for three or four months with the team and playing in this league you have to be on top of your game to impact a game of football.

'That took – which we all knew – months because there was no pre-season, just games, games, games and hardly any time to train. We all knew it would take him time and that's why he is so unlucky he is now injured because we all saw with his goal against West Ham and with this goal he gets closer and closer to the player he was last season at Newcastle.'