Liverpool boss Matt Beard has confirmed Katie Stengel's injury "is not looking good" after the striker was forced to leave the field in the dying stages of the Reds' Continental League Cup match with West Ham.
An 87th-minute header from Hammers captain Dagny Brynjarsdottir was enough to send Liverpool out of the competition at the quarter-final stage on Wednesday night, however the result was somewhat overshadowed by the sight of Stengel going to ground after a heavy collision with goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold.
The American received treatment before leaving the field and heading straight down the tunnel in stoppage time at Prenton Park, with Beard revealing that the club will now have to wait to find out the severity of her injury.
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"She’s going to need an X-ray on the jaw so it’s not looking good," the Liverpool manager said after the game. "That will be a massive blow if that’s the case. We hope it’s just a bruise but we’ll see."
Stengel, who thought she had given Liverpool the lead on Wednesday before her goal was chalked off for offside, returned to the matchday squad against Chelsea last weekend after missing the Reds' dispiriting trip to Manchester United through injury. She now faces the prospect of another spell on the sidelines, where she will join fellow attackers Leanne Kiernan and Shanice van de Sanden on the treatment table.
The latter was omitted from Matt Beard's squad against West Ham, with the Liverpool boss confirming she had been absent from training after slipping in the warm-up ahead of the Reds' abandoned meeting with Chelsea on Sunday.
"Shanice got injured in the warm-up at Chelsea on Sunday so that’s super-frustrating," Beard said. "She slipped in the warm-up and she’s got a little twinge in her knee. She didn’t train Monday, tried (on Tuesday) but broke down again."
Reflecting on his side's overall performance against the Hammers, the Liverpool manager added: "I thought we were the better team but - I keep saying it - we created numerous chances tonight and we’ve not taken them. We’ve got in some really good goalscoring positions and we’ve taken an extra touch and not pulled the trigger which is frustrating.
"Our disallowed goal should have stood but it is what it is. We wanted to progress tonight. I felt we should have and could have but just one moment where we’ve switched off and allowed Dagny to get in between the two centre backs and we get punished and that’s the difference at this top level."
The Reds will return to action when they once again travel to Kingsmeadow to take on Chelsea in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday.
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