Liverpool 'Anxious' That Mamadou Sakho Could Miss 9 Months with ACL Injury

Crystal Palace defender Mamadou Sakho looks to have played his last match for the club amid reports he could spend up to nine months on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury against Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday evening.

The France international was forced to withdraw from the 1-0 defeat after falling awkwardly on his leg early in the second half, and James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo wrote he could be absent until well into the 2017-18 campaign.

Palace fear their Liverpool loanee—who moved to south London on temporary terms during the winter transfer window—could have suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury, with both clubs awaiting scan results.

Pearce also provided quotes from Eagles manager Sam Allardyce, who feared the worst after seeing the centre-back's season most likely come to an abrupt end: "It looks like ligament trouble for Mama, but which one we don't know. We certainly hope it's not the cruciate but it could be the medial or the lateral. It certainly looks like a hyperextension of the knee and we wait and see what the scan shows."

Alardyce provided an update on Sakho's condition on Thursday morning, in which he stated his hope the defender may yet feature again for the Eagles this season, per Mark Mann-Bryans of the Press Association:

The injury almost certainly means Sakho will spend next season at Liverpool, despite falling out with Reds manager Jurgen Klopp, as detailed by Dominic Fifield of the Guardian.

Sakho could consider the injury a hope for his Anfield career—provided he can also put any disciplinary troubles to rest on Merseyside.

He's partly proved his credentials as a capable centre-back at Selhurst Park, evidenced by the club's win rate with and without his services, per OptaJean:

His absence will mean the manager is forced to alter his centre-back plans. Martin Kelly is likely to play a part in making up for his team-mate's absence. Damien Delaney is another player in contention to fill in at centre-back, while Joel Ward can also function in central defence.

Sakho's impact at Selhurst Park has been immense, too, evidenced by the fact Palace managed to keep four clean sheets in his first six Premier League games as an Eagle, compared with the two they managed in the entire season before his debut.