Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott is expected to play again this season after undergoing successful surgery on a fracture dislocation of his left ankle.

The 18-year-old was carried off in this past Sunday’s 3-0 win at Elland Road with an injury which left some of his teammates visibly distressed following a tackle which had Pascal Struijk sent off – a dismissal Leeds are appealing against.

Elliott underwent an operation on Tuesday and will subsequently begin a programme of rehabilitation.

“Harvey sustained a fracture dislocation of his left ankle during the game,” club doctor Dr Jim Moxon told liverpoolfc.com.

“We were able to reduce the dislocation immediately on the pitch and Harvey had surgery today to repair the fracture and ligaments damaged in the incident.

“The operation was a success, so his comeback starts now.

“We won’t put pressure on him by setting a specific time frame beyond being able to say with confidence we expect him to feature again later in the season following our rehab programme.”

The news will come as a positive to manager Jurgen Klopp, who had been awaiting news of the surgery and said Elliott “was in the best possible place. He took it [and] accepted already that he would be out for a while”.

Goalkeeper Alisson Becker said: “The medical staff obviously had to work hard to give him the best conditions for recovery but Harvey knows that we are here for him whenever he needs us.

“We are a real unit as a team. We celebrate together, and when an important player gets injured, we are injured together for him.”