Andy Robertson has revealed the Liverpool dressing room deemed Jordan Pickford’s tackle on Virgil van Dijk a ‘shocking challenge’ as the defender was forced off the pitch through injury against Everton.
The Reds played out a fascinating 2-2 with their Merseyside rivals at Goodison Park in a game that was full of needle.
Pickford was lucky to escape a red card early on for a reckless tackle on Van Dijk, which the VAR failed to flag up to referee Michael Oliver.
The Dutch defender was substituted off with a suspected knee injury and left hospital on crutches on Saturday evening as the club await the results of a scan.
Left-back Robertson lamented the challenges of Pickford and Richarlison – who was sent off for a foul which injured Thiago – and admitted it’s not looking good for Van Dijk.
He told LFCTV: ‘To be honest, I never saw it. I just saw Virg going down.
‘But the lads when they came in at half-time said it was a shocking challenge, so that’s two they’ve done us with.
‘I can’t comment on if Pickford’s meant it or not, I think he’s an honest lad and I don’t think he would have.
‘Losing a player like him is always tough, but from an incident like that, it makes it a wee bit tougher.
‘Look, that’s part of football, unfortunately. It’s part of derbies, it’s part of life. We’ll all deal with it, we’ll all support Virg for however long he’s out – hopefully not long, like I said.’
