Hugo Ekitike told of new Liverpool injury timeline as 'dark places' warning sent

Nine months is usually required to fully recover from such a problem, but Morrison - when issuing some words of advice to Ekitike - is optimistic he could be back much earlier than January of next year.

He exclusively told Freebets.com: "Just stay strong. Stay positive. Have good people around you. And in this day and age with all the medical technology available, it could be six or seven months.

"He's young — you heal quicker when you're young. But yeah, there'll be dark places. Watching the World Cup will hurt him. And when pre-season starts and all your teammates are in it and you're not — that's the hard one.

"But he's had a very good season overall, he's still young, he's a top player, and he will bounce back. The people at Liverpool, his family, his friends — they'll all get behind him. There is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Though he could play football again this year, there is no chance of him featuring at the World Cup with France. The 23-year-old was a shoe-in to be part of Didier Deschamps' squad having grabbed three goal contributions from his last six appearances.

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Ekitike has taken to social media in the wake of suffering the major injury and also undergoing surgery, as he wrote on Instagram: "I’m out of here, I’ll be back soon."

The onus is now seemingly on Alexander Isak to step up over the coming months with his first season at Anfield marred by fitness and injury problems.

Cody Gakpo is expected to take some of the minutes up front which could result in a more prominent role for Rio Ngumoha.

The latter is undoubtedly at the centre of Liverpool's future plans but it was Mohamed Salah, who is set to leave at the end of the season, that rolled back the years with his goal in Sunday's 2-1 Merseyside Derby win over Everton.

That victory gave Liverpool some breathing room in the race for Champions League football with all of Brighton, Chelsea, Brentford and Bournemouth narrowly behind.

A win over Crystal Palace this weekend at Anfield would put Arne Slot's side in a great position to secure a top-five finish especially with trips to Manchester United and Aston Villa following that. The reigning champions also host Chelsea and Brentford in the final weeks of the season.