A number of top players suffered worrying injury scares on a jam-packed Saturday of Premier League action. Erling Haaland was spotted limping at the end of Manchester City's narrow victory over Ipswich Town after scoring two of his side's goals. Antoine Semenyo was also moving gingerly around the Etihad Stadium in a worrying sight for the unbeaten Premier League leaders.
Liverpool and Chelsea concerns
Liverpool also had a major scare to contend with as Dominik Szoboszlai was forced off during their comeback victory over Brentford. The midfielder, who was a doubt before kick-off at the Gtech Community Stadium, was replaced by Trey Nyoni after only 32 minutes.
Chelsea, meanwhile, were rocked by a potentially serious injury to Emi Martinez, who was rushed to hospital after a sickening clash of heads with Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite.
Manager updates
Enzo Maresca was quick to play down the significance of Haaland's potential injury, but couldn't guarantee that he had escaped damage. Speaking in his press conference, the City manager said: "I asked him and he said he was okay so hopefully it is nothing serious. We will see. I don't have any news at the moment."
Andoni Iraola's update on Szoboszlai was far less positive, with the Liverpool boss expecting him and Jeremie Frimpong to be sidelined for a while. Szoboszlai is believed to have suffered a recurrence of the hamstring injury he picked up on international duty earlier this month.
Iraola said: "They were different cases. Dom felt the same injury, it's not a new injury and was probably not healed enough, so we will need more time with him. Jeremie's was new, I think he finished cramping the other day. I put him on because playing against 10, going forward I thought he could give us more than Ronald [Araujo]. After, I value a lot and he was very good, Victor [Munoz] playing as a right-back, but it will mean we will lose Dom and Jeremie for some time."
Hospital checks and further tests
Xabi Alonso confirmed that Martinez was conscious after being rushed to hospital for additional checks, but the Chelsea head coach didn't have much else to say. "As far as I know he left the stadium conscious," explained Alonso. "Right now, he is in the hospital doing precautionary tests, so let's see, but this is what I know so far."
Semenyo appeared to hurt his knee in the closing stages of City's win over Ipswich and appeared to be hobbling after the final whistle. Maresca said afterwards that further tests would be required to determine if the former Bournemouth winger would be sidelined for any length of time. He said: "The only one we have to wait a little bit to see is Antoine." On injuries in general, Maresca added: "Unfortunately, in 10 minutes we had four or five players. We’ll see. I don’t know, I don’t have any news at the moment."
