Arne Slot has hit out at what he felt was a "reckless" challenge from Micky van de Ven, after Alexander Isak was confirmed to have suffered a leg break.

Isak was injured in the process of scoring Liverpool's opener in their 2-1 win over Tottenham on Saturday, with Van de Ven sliding in to try and make a block.

Van de Ven caught the Sweden international, whose ankle appeared to buckle nastily. Liverpool announced on Monday that Isak had sustained a fractured fibula.

Slot felt the tackle from his compatriot Van de Ven was needless, as he confirmed Isak is facing "a couple of months" on the sidelines.

The Liverpool boss told reporters: "The most injuries we have are not related to overloading. When you look at Alex's injury, it has nothing to do with overloading the player. It's the same with Wataru Endo.

"Of course, there are one or two that might have to do with overloading – Cody Gakpo has a muscle and the same with Joe Gomez.

"Yeah, [Isak's injury] was a reckless challenge. I've said a lot about the tackle of Xavi Simons, which for me was completely unintentional. I don't think you will ever get an injury out of a tackle like that.

"But the tackle from Van de Ven, if you make a tackle like that 10 times, 10 times there is a chance the player gets a serious injury."

Isak has endured a difficult start to life at Liverpool since his record-breaking transfer from Newcastle United, with his strike against Spurs marking just his third goal.

Slot, though, is confident Isak can still have a big impact this season.

It's been a really challenging period for him," Slot added.

"You join a new club and you are very excited. You want to show immediately all the qualities you have. But that was simply impossible with him because you haven't trained for three or four months on a serious level and you are playing in the Premier League.

"You need to be at the top of the game to impact a game. And that took months before we could bring him up. We always knew it would take him time.

"That's why it's so unlucky that he's now injured. We all saw he was getting closer and closer to the player that he was last season at Newcastle."

Isak's injury comes while Mohamed Salah, who seemed to have fallen out with Slot earlier this month, is away with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Liverpool do, though, have a kind fixture up next, with a home game against lowly and winless Wolves on Saturday, before the Reds take on Leeds United at Anfield on New Year's Day.

With Salah's future still up in the air, Liverpool are one of the clubs to have been linked with Antoine Semenyo.

The winger has been involved in 20 Premier League goals in 2025 for Bournemouth, scoring 14 times and adding six assists. It is the joint-most goal involvements by a Cherries player in a calendar year, along with Dominic Solanke in 2023 (15 goals, five assists).

However, Slot would not be drawn on transfer speculation.

He said: "My first and only thoughts are on upcoming two games. Two difficult ones. Two home games, which is really nice.

"It's time for the players we have available to do what they've done so many times – roll their sleeves up to help us in best way to get the results we want. The players that are available need to give everything they have, and the fans as well as they usually do. That will help us."