Arne Slot has said Liverpool’s luck this season has been so bad it has even extended to new signing Jérémy Jacquet, who has suffered a shoulder injury ahead of his summer move to Anfield.

Liverpool agreed a £60 million ($82m) deal to sign Jacquet from Rennes on deadline day, however the centre-back may now require surgery on his shoulder after picking up an injury while playing for the French side at the weekend.

“It feels like that, that’s for sure,” Slot said when asked whether Liverpool have been unlucky this term.

“Even if we sign a player and he’s not even playing for us he gets injured. Sometimes it feels like that but the moment you start to feel it’s all bad luck, it probably comes to you as well so we should keep it away as much as possible and focus on the performance and what we can do to improve it.

“But the amount of times we conceded late goals in extra time is far more than usual. The question is is it bad luck or are we to blame?

“I’ve tried many different things. I’ve made defensive substitutions and the ball went in, I’ve kept playing the same players and the ball went in. We’ve tried a lot. I can fairly say we haven’t been lucky, that is definitely true.

“The question is are we unlucky or is it part of who we are? That is something we can only find out in the upcoming three to four months.”

Slot also admitted that this has been the toughest campaign of his career and acknowledged failing to secure Champions League football this season could impact Liverpool’s summer transfer business.

“If we don’t have Champions League football, it’s definitely not been an acceptable season,” he said.

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“When I arrived here and only signed Federico Chiesa, it was after a Europa League season. That does have an enormous impact on the way this club is run. I am completely aware of that.”

The Liverpool boss added: “Yeah, that’s fair to say [it’s been the hardest season of his career]. By a mile. Because all the other seasons I’ve managed, there were only positives. I don’t think I’ve ever lost two games in a row [before this season]. It’s an exception for me this season as it is for the players. The players are not used to losing a lot or having a lot of draws. I’m not used to that as well.”

LONDON: England Test captain Ben Stokes says that he has undergone successful surgery after being struck in the face by a cricket ball.

The 34-year-old all-rounder posted a picture on Instagram last week showing his eye heavily swollen and bruised, a graze on his cheek and lip, and a bandage stuffed in his nose.

“You should see the state of the cricket ball,” read the caption, alongside a laughing face emoji.

On Tuesday, he posted again from the hospital with a photo of his swollen face and the caption: “May not look like it, but the surgery was a success.”

Stokes is back in England following a woeful Ashes tour, which ended with a 4-1 series loss to Australia.

Although he has made it clear he wants to continue to captain the red-ball side, his position remains uncertain and there is an England and Wales Cricket Board review.

Stokes is no longer a member of England’s white-ball set-up and isn’t at the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

He could next play for Durham in the early rounds of the County Championship before England begin their home Test season against New Zealand at Lord’s on June 4 — Stokes’s 35th birthday.

American-born Team China Olympic skier Eileen Gu came under immense scrutiny on social media this week after making comments about President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of U.S. Olympian Hunter Hess.

Gu, who was born in San Francisco, is the highest-paid Winter Olympic athlete in the world, making an estimated $23 million in 2025 alone in partnerships with Chinese companies, including the Bank of China, and western companies. Gu has said she represents China for her mother, who was born there.

Gu has never spoken out against China’s alleged human rights abuses, including the nation’s alleged systematic campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. 

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However, Gu has commented on Trump’s criticism of Hess for expressing “mixed emotions” about representing the U.S. in Milan Cortina. 

“I’m sorry that the headline that is eclipsing the Olympics has to be something so unrelated to the spirit of the Games. It really runs contrary to everything the Olympics should be,” Gu told reporters Monday.

“The whole point of sport is to bring people together. … One of the very few common languages, that of the human body, that of the human spirit, the competitive spirit, the capacity to break not only records, but especially in our sport, literally the human limit. How wonderful is that?”

Gu also claimed she had been “caught in the crossfire” herself. 

“As someone who has got caught in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the athletes,” Gu said. “I hope that they can ski to their very best.”

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Eileen Gu celebrates winning the gold medal after competing in the Freestyle Skiing Women’s Halfpipe Final during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Genting Snow Park. (Danielle Parhizkaran/USA Today Sports)

Gu’s comments have incited backlash on social media, with many critics pointing out that Gu has never spoken out against China for its alleged human rights violations. 

Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom blasted Gu in a lengthy X post, calling her a “traitor.”

“Eileen Gu is a traitor. She was born in America, raised in America, lives in America, and chose to compete against her own country for the worst human rights abuser on the planet, China. She built her fame in a free country, then chose to represent an authoritarian regime while cashing in on endorsements linked by watchdog groups to mass detention and forced labor camps. When human rights come up, she disappears,” Kanter wrote. 

“That’s not neutrality. That’s a choice. She chose to play for a country responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of its own people and that is running concentration camps right now, instead of the country where she was born and given opportunity.”

Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Sobolik also pointed out Gu’s silence on China’s alleged persecution of Uyghurs and the political imprisonment of individuals who oppose Xi Jinping. 

“Listen, it’s fine for athletes to criticize the U.S. president. It also isn’t that interesting because it happens all the time. What’s interesting about this story … is that Eileen Gu is an American skier competing for China. No mention about whether the CCP’s genocide of Uyghurs ‘runs contrary to everything the Olympics should be.’ No criticism of Xi Jinping for the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai, Pastor Ezra Jin, Gulshan Abbas, or China’s many other political prisoners,” Sobolik wrote on X. 

“If you criticize America but won’t say a word about the CCP, that says a lot about you. If you’re an American athlete that leverages the freedom this country has given you to represent an authoritarian regime, that says even more.”

Republican communications specialist Matt Whitlock echoed similar criticism of Gu in an X post.

“Can’t imagine a worse voice on this topic than an athlete who threw away her American citizenship for Chinese Communist Party endorsement deals. Does Eileen Gu have any criticism for Xi Jinping for genocide, slavery, and arresting dissenters?” Whitlock wrote. 

Several other X users spoke out against Gu. 

Trump has been one of the most discussed figures at this year’s Winter Olympics, and several athletes have made suggestive criticisms of his handling of the U.S., including Hess. 

Trump made a scathing post on social media, calling Hess a “real loser.”

“U.S. Olympic Skier, Hunter Hess, a real Loser, says he doesn’t represent his Country in the current Winter Olympics,” he wrote.

“If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have tried out for the Team, and it’s too bad he’s on it. Very hard to root for someone like this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Hess originally said of representing the U.S., “It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think. It’s a little hard. There’s obviously a lot going on that I’m not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren’t.

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China’s Eileen Gu reacts at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. Monday, Feb. 9, 2026.  (David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images)

“I think, for me, it’s more I’m representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented it before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S. If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I’m representing it. Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.

“I just kind of want to do it for my friends and my family and the people that support me getting here.”

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