Rüdiger limps off with apparent knee injury against Liverpool

Antonio Rüdiger’s day came to an early end on Sunday as he was carried off on the shoulders of Chelsea’s medical staff in the 40th minute of Chelsea massive game against Liverpool at Anfield. He was replaced by young Andreas Christensen, who’s been rotating in regularly for either center back all season.

Rüdiger’s injury probably began around the 20-minute mark, when he accidentally tangled legs with Sadio Mané while chasing down a long ball. Rüdiger’s left leg hit Mané’s, got deflected into a fairly unnatural angle, and then came down on his right leg, causing him to fall. The immediate pain of that fall was resolved by a bit of magic spray, but the Chelsea defender would last only another 20 minutes.

He went down grimacing and holding his left leg once again after playing a simple pass forward, and that was that. Christensen, who had started warming up after the initial treatment was already getting is shirt on.

The big concern is of course a recurrence of Rüdiger’s knee issues, which he’s had to deal with in 2014 (meniscus injury), 2015 (knee surgery), and 2016 (ACL) as well. Even if it’s just a minor injury, his season at least is probably over.