Arne Slot has backed Hugo Ekitike to return ‘even stronger’ from his injury.
The Liverpool forward is sidelined for the rest of this after rupturing his Achilles tendon during Tuesday’s Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
Ekitike will also miss out on France’s World Cup campaign in the summer with his earliest return date set to come towards the end of the current calendar year.
But ahead of Sunday’s Merseyside derby with Everton, Slot believes that the 23-year-old can replicate his impressive debut season at Anfield upon his comeback.
“He hasn’t been operated [on] yet. It’s devastating for him,” said Slot.
“Coming to a new club, having so much impact straight away, playing against your former club in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, with so much more to come for him in the summer.
“Your first thoughts are then always with him being out for such a long time, missing out on so many special moments.
“But he’s not the first and will not be the last player that experiences something like this in the start of his career, and there are so many examples of players that came back even stronger.
“That’s the challenge he has now.
“I’m 100 per cent sure he will be one of those that in 10, 15 years’ time say, ‘Maybe this injury even helped me to become stronger and become even more ready to perform even at a higher level than I did before’.”