Jordan Pickford will face no retrospective punishment for his challenge on Virgil van Dijk, which resulted in a very serious ACL injury to Liverpool’s superstar center back, the English Football Association announced on Monday.
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Van Dijk is set to miss 6-8 months, which will very likely mean the remainder of the 2020-21 season.
The FA confirmed on Monday that the incident between Pickford and Van Dijk had been seen by the referee, they would not re-open and re-litigate referee Michael Oliver’s decision. The FA can intervene in instances where an incident was seen by the referee on the day, but that power is said to be reserved for exceptionally rare circumstances — a bar which the FA evidently does not believe Pickford versus Van Dijk reaches.
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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has again spoken on Van Dijk’s injury, confirming that a date for surgery is yet to be arranged, among other key points — quotes from the BBC:“A few things are clear, so he now will be out for a while, that’s clear. I expected it pretty much on Saturday immediately after the game, especially when I saw the challenge back. I saw it the first time only from the bench, and when I saw it back it was pretty clear that he will be out for a long time.
“So we feel now in this moment extremely, extremely for him because most of us have been in a similar situation and we know that these situations are absolutely rubbish.”