Liverpool’s new signing Jeremy Jacquet has sustained a “serious” shoulder injury just days after agreeing a summer move to Anfield.
The 20-year-old fell awkwardly in the second half of Rennes’ 3-1 defeat to Lens in Ligue 1 and appeared in agony as he left the pitch.
“For Jeremy, it’s his shoulder, and for Abdelhamid (Ait Boudlal, the other Rennes player injured) it’s muscular,” Rennes head coach Habib Beye said in his post-match interview.
“We’ll have time to see, but it’s definitely quite serious for both of them.”
Liverpool saw off competition from Chelsea to agree a deal to sign the highly rated France Under-21 centre-back for £55m plus £5m in add-ons on 1 July on a five-year contract, with the option of a further 12 months.
Jacquet will arrive as the future of Liverpool’s defence takes shape, following the purchase of 19-year-old Giovanni Leoni last summer.
But he will also join as captain Virgil van Dijk enters the last year of his current deal while they risk losing Ibrahima Konate, whose contract expires this summer, at the end of June.
“Very pleasing, of course,” was Reds head coach Arne Slot’s verdict on the deal.
“He’s a very big talent and maybe even more than a talent, but we speak about talent because of his age.
“We weren’t the only one interested in him. It’s another big compliment to the people working really hard to sign players because we were able to sign such a big talent.”
His arrival will take Liverpool’s expenditure since the start of last summer’s transfer window past £500m, even though they were unable to strengthen their injury-hit squad in January.
