{"id":631212,"date":"2025-12-14T04:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T04:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/631212\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T04:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T04:06:14","slug":"arne-slot-explains-hugo-ekitike-substitution-with-liverpool-star-chasing-hat-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/631212\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot explains Hugo Ekitike substitution with Liverpool star chasing hat-trick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot confirms Hugo Ekitike’s second-half withdrawal was due to cramp after Liverpool beat Brighton 2-0\"HugoHugo Ekitike scored twice for Liverpool against Brighton(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Arne Slot has eased injury fears around Hugo Ekitike by confirming the two-goal striker was taken off with cramp in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion. Ekitike scored the Reds’ quickest goal of the season<\/a> when he dispatched after just 46 seconds against the Seagulls.<\/p>\n

And he followed it up with his 10th across all competitions with a second-half header from substitute Mohamed Salah’s corner.<\/p>\n

The France international was withdrawn for Alexander Isak in the second half after pulling up with a problem, which Slot has now dismissed as cramp, meaning the No.22 will be available for next week’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Arne Slot confirms new Liverpool injury blows after Brighton win<\/a>READ MORE: Arne Slot makes final Mohamed Salah decision ahead of Liverpool star’s AFCON departure<\/a><\/p>\n

“Just before I took him off, there was a moment where he could hardly walk any more because of cramp,” Slot said.<\/p>\n

“So what I see with him and all the players we brought had to adapt to the Premier League<\/a> because they are all young, maybe except for Alex (Isak) because of intensity, some of them had to adapt to Premier League and the Champions League<\/a>. “And I see all of them making progress in that, so Hugo had cramp today but I can assure you he did twice as much at the beginning of the season when I had to take him off with cramp as well and that is what this league brings as well.<\/p>\n

“If you cannot be so intense for such a long time then it is so hard to win a game of football. The best athletes play in this league. We are trying to prepare them more and more and I can see progress for all our signings.”<\/p>\n

Liverpool<\/a> moved up to sixth in the Premier League table with their victory<\/a> over Fabian Hurzeler’s Seagulls.<\/p>\n

For the latest Liverpool FC news and breaking news, visit <\/strong>liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/liverpool-fc<\/strong><\/a>. Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Sign up for one of the Liverpool Echo’s free daily and weekly newsletters on Liverpool <\/strong>by clicking here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot confirms Hugo Ekitike’s second-half withdrawal was due to cramp after Liverpool beat Brighton 2-0Hugo Ekitike scored…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[1121,748,393,4884,5759,179,763,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-631212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-arne-slot","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-hugo-ekitike","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-liverpool-fc","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115715951435732601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}