Bad news for Joel Matip: The Liverpool FC central defender and former Schalke player has suffered a serious injury.

During his career, Joel Matip has had to cope with numerous minor and major injuries. Now the 32-year-old native of Bochum has been hit particularly hard. The Liverpool FC central defender has torn his anterior cruciate ligament. His club announced the diagnosis last night.

Matip suffered the serious knee injury during the 4:3 win against FC Fulham last weekend. He had to be substituted in the 69th minute. He is facing a month-long absence and possibly even the end of his time at Liverpool. Matip’s contract expires next summer.

“It’s a cruciate ligament rupture, unfortunately I expected that from the very first second. Everything looked like this. Extremely unfortunate,” said LFC coach Jürgen Klopp on the sidelines of the 2-0 win over Sheffield United on Wednesday evening, before the bad news was officially announced.

It is a bitter setback for Matip. The defender, who was promoted from FC Schalke 04’s youth ranks in 2009 and subsequently played 256 competitive matches (23 goals) for the Royal Blues, has seen regular playing time this season. After having to make do with a reserve role for most of last year, Matip was in the starting eleven on nine of 14 Premier League matchdays this season and made a case for a contract extension with mostly solid performances

Whether this will happen is probably more questionable than ever after the cruciate ligament injury. Matip has been at Anfield Road since 2016 and was one of the first new signings during Klopp’s tenure. Matip celebrated great success with Liverpool, winning the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League title a year later. He has made 201 appearances for the traditional club – it remains to be seen whether more games will be added.