Football journalist David Ornstein has been sharing his thoughts on the injury that Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk suffered during the Reds’ 2-2 draw against Everton at the weekend.
This comes after Ornstein recently co-hosted the latest episode of The Athletic’s Ornstein & Chapman Podcast where he spoke about the biggest news stories in the Premier League at the moment.
On the subject of Van Dijk’s knee injury, which he suffered after a bad tackle from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, Ornstein had this to say on the matter.
He said: “I noticed when Virgil van Dijk walked off the pitch that if this was an ACL injury, then surely he should have gone on a stretcher?
“I spoke to a couple of people in the medical world who said exactly the same, if it’s a multiple ligament injury, then that sort of action straight after the incident occurring, of course, you don’t know the exact prognosis at that point, could potentially do further damage.
“I’d be interested to know why he wasn’t stretchered off.”
Instead of being stretchered off the pitch at Goodison Park after the tackle, Van Dijk walked off.
On Sunday, the official Liverpool club website announced that the Dutch defender will have to undergo surgery after he damaged his knee ligaments from Pickford’s tackle.
They also revealed that Van Dijk will go through a rehabilitation programme after his surgery to help him get back to full fitness.
Do you think Van Dijk should have been stretchered off the pitch?
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TIF Thoughts on David Ornstein’s comments on Van Dijk’s injury…
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to question why the Liverpool medical team didn’t escort Van Dijk off the pitch at Goodison Park.
Now that we know that Van Dijk’s injury is a serious one and that he will require surgery to fix it, it’s hard to say whether or not Van Dijk would have benefitted from being stretchered off the pitch or not.
Moving forward, everyone at Liverpool will be hoping that Van Dijk can have a safe and speedy recovery and get back to full fitness as soon as possible.