Football
Melissa Reddy, Correspondent 5y

Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp slams 'dangerous as hell' tackle on Mohamed Salah

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has urged Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury to "calm down" after his "dangerous as hell" challenge on Mohamed Salah.

The Egypt forward will have scans on Sunday after limping off with an ankle injury on 89 minutes in the 2-1 victory at Anfield on Saturday following a late and wild tackle from behind by the Leicester man.

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Klopp was furious with the reckless contact, which he believed should have resulted in a sending off instead of just a yellow card.

"It's just a challenge which I really don't understand," Klopp said. "How he can do it, because the ball is far away. The player is full sprint to bring him down without the ball around, for me there is only one colour card.

"I see in your eyes that I am probably the only one who sees it like this.

"It is dangerous as hell. I don't want to cause the boy any problems, but he has to calm down. He has to calm down."

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers disagreed with Klopp's analysis of the situation.

"I don't think it was an overly bad challenge," Rodgers said. "Salah is coming inside and the speed he travels and Hamza is coming back, there is a clash.

"I'm not sure if it is a dead leg or whatever? I have tried to look at it but the camera is quite a way away. The emotion of the game, it might seem worse than it was. He is an honest boy, Hamza. He makes challenges, he's aggressive, but I don't think there was anything malicious."

Choudhury has a reputation of being too rash in duels and was sent off during England Under-21 duty for an awful challenge on France's Jonathan Bamba in June.

Two months later, Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce was seething with the 22-year-old, who injured Matt Ritchie with an "over-the-top, awful, horror challenge" in the Carabao Cup defeat to Leicester at St. James' Park.

"This is not the first situation like this," Klopp said. "He is a super player, but these kind of challenges -- no.

"From a football point of view, if you are quick, you need to make sure that somebody can't do everything to bring you down. I don't need to be a football manager to know this can cause serious injury. I only need two eyes!"

Leicester later released a statement condemning racist comments directed at Choudhury on social media after the game.

"We are appalled by these comments, which the club has reported to the police and to the social media platform on which they were made," a spokesperson said.

"Discriminatory behaviour has no place in football or in society and we will seek the strongest possible course of action to be taken against those responsible."

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