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Eduardo Salvio only seemed to last a matter of moments as a supposed serious Liverpool target before the Argentine winger’s potential move was ruled out due to injury. Benfica have made no secret of the fact that they will be selling players this summer to balance the books, and 24-year-old wing star Salvio had been a reported target for Liverpool.
With his €40M release clause, he was another big name out wide being linked with an Anfield move following the English club’s interest in Memphis Depay and Son Heung-Min. A serious injury, though, and scans that have since revealed he has ruptured his ACL, have now taken him off the market as far as his club is concerned. And even if Benfica were still looking to sell, Liverpool would now be foolish to buy.
Liverpool have something of a recent history with ACL injuries. They set Lucas Leiva back at a time when he was the best holding midfielder in England, derailed Martin Kelly’s Liverpool career, and have left Samed Yesil’s future in doubt. Salvio will miss at least seven months, but even in the best case scenario it is likely to take a year or more for him to return to his pre-injury best. If he ever returns to his pre-injury best.
"Salvio, with the injury he has, is not a player who will be transferred," said Benfica representative Domingos Oliveira. "We now do not expect him to be sold during the summer. We haven’t finished the season yet and it is too early to say who might leave, but in the model we have it is always necessary to sell players. The past decade saw a lot of investment, but from now on we need to have a different model."
Liverpool previously signed Lazar Markovic from Benfica, paying £20M for the promising young Serbian winger who as the season moved on appeared increasingly not to be a part of manager Brendan Rodgers’ plans.
