Harvey Elliott was clearly in pain as he left the pitch following the final whistle in the Carabao Cup final.
Elliott emerged as a second-half substitute and assisted Federico Chiesa for Liverpool‘s only goal of the game in injury time, but in the final minute of the match he was slammed to the ground by Joelinton, who escaped punishment despite a VAR check.
The young Liverpool midfielder had to be helped off the pitch and was not seen walking up the Wembley steps to collect his runners-up medal.
Elliott has endured a difficult season on an individual level, rarely featuring over the course of the campaign, but has contributed to goals against Paris Saint-Germain and now Newcastle in recent weeks.
The 21-year-old also came off the bench with Liverpool trailing 1-0 to Southampton last weekend — a game the team went on to win 3-1.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot admitted his regret at not starting Eliott in that game, which came three days after his winning goal in away to PSG. “It’s always a difficult decision not to start Harvey, not to start Wata, not to start all the other ones that I don’t play,” he told reporters.
“But if someone comes in for five minutes, touches his first ball and scores a goal, then to change your whole idea about all the lineups you made before, that would be a bit weird as well.
“So yeah, he (Elliott) had a good impact on the game [against PSG], today he had again a good impact on the game. That’s why he got 45 minutes today as well, because he did so well in Paris.
“There’s also a reason why I play so many times the other ones, and all the time they deserved that trust. But today, if I could do it one more time over, I would have started it differently than I started, but you don’t know this in advance.”
