Liverpool's Marko Grujić suffered an ankle ligament injury during training on Tuesday which will rule him out of action with loan club Hertha BSC until 2019.
The Serbia international has recently started to find his feet in the Bundesliga and was beginning to show signs of the player that Liverpool fans believed they'd bought from Red Star Belgrade in 2016.
Grujić most recently scored Hertha's match-winning goal against reigning DFB-Pokal champions Eintracht Frankfurt and he was on a run of three consecutive appearances following an ankle injury earlier in the season.
But the club have confirmed that their star midfielder will now miss the remainder of the season after picking up a knock in training, which has caused ligament damage in his ankle.
Hertha BSC remain unbeaten in each of Grujić's seven appearances so far for the club, and head coach Pál Dárdai lauded the player as the best midfielder at the club within the last 20 years.
"I've been at Hertha for 22 years," Dárdai said, quoted by the Bundesliga. "This isn't meant as an insult to anyone else, but Marko is by far the best midfielder I've seen in my time at the club.
"He's got so much potential, and you can see that out on the pitch. He's so robust in the middle of the park, but he can still play. He's good in the air, he wins tackles and has got such a strong desire to win. I can only say: 'respect'. And he's not even fully fit. Just imagine what he'll be like when he is!"
Hertha will now be without Grujić for their upcoming matches against VfB Stuttgart, FC Augsburg and Bayer Leverkusen, ahead of the winter break.
Source : 90min