The 65th-minute substitution had the home crowd worried. Wirtz, Liverpool’s £120m record signing from Bayer Leverkusen, had already shaped the match in his side’s favour, and seeing him replaced carried more weight than the scoreline suggested.

Wirtz himself was unbothered.

“I think it should be alright. It’s not too bad,” he said after the final whistle, adding that the medical staff still had to assess the ankle.

A one-sided opening half-hour

Liverpool had settled the game before the half-hour. Wirtz was involved in the opener, and Alexander Isak added Liverpool’s second, his continuing goalscoring run across recent matches.

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Brighton improved after the break but never seriously threatened a route back in.

Wait on the scan

Liverpool’s bench offered a similarly calm reading of the injury but refused to be drawn before the medical team had checked the ankle properly. With fixtures stacking up midweek, the squad will know more once the scan results are in.

Chelsea come to Anfield in the Carabao Cup last 16 on Wednesday, before a Premier League trip to Arsenal on 1 November.

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