Southampton’s Djenepo forced off injured against Liverpool

Southampton’s injury crisis grew on Monday when Moussa Djenepo was forced off against Liverpool with a hamstring injury.

The Mali international who accounted for one shot and two successful tackles was having a fine game before going down with injury.

After Djenepo was attended to by medics, he was replaced by English forward of Nigerian descent Nathan Adewale Tella in the 32nd minute. It was the 21-year-old’s fifth game for the Saints in the 2020-21 campaign.

Without the former Standard Liege man, the Saints marched on to a 1-0 win over the reigning English champions at the St. Mary’s Stadium. Former Reds star Danny Ings haunted his former employers with the only goal of the game after just 111 seconds, lobbing the ball over Alisson Becker from James Ward-Prowse’s chipped free-kick.

Following the result, Jurgen Klopp’s men are now four points clear of Southampton, who are up to sixth, and became the first team in Premier League history to beat all seven winners of the competition in the season following a title win.

Djenepo has struggled for momentum in his 18-month Saints career to date and was evidently upset on his way down the tunnel. The extent of his injury is expected to be announced in the coming hours.

Notwithstanding, he is unlikely to be available for Saturday’s FA Cup fixture versus Shrewsbury Town and their league fixture against Wilfred Ndidi’s Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

With Alex McCarthy, Jannik Vestergaard and Nathan Redmond already out due to different reasons, manager Ralph Hasenhuttl can ill afford another injury to his reliable star.

The African moved to England from Standard Liege on 13 June 2019, having penned a four-year contract with the English top-flight side for a reported fee of £14 million.

His first goal came on August 2019 as the Saints secured a 2-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion.

Having represented Mali at the 2017 U20 Africa Cup of Nations, he got his first call-up to the senior team on October 3, 2017 before making his bow three days later in a 0-0 2018 Fifa World Cup qualification match with Cote d’Ivoire.