Virgil van Dijk is set to miss most of the 2020/21 season with a serious knee injury.Jordan Pickford's reckless tackle on the Liverpool centre-back in last Saturday's Merseyside derby could prove very costly to the Reds' chances of retaining their Premier League title.Van Dijk's importance to Jurgen Klopp's side is unparalleled and every team in the English top-flight will now fancy their chances against the champions - at home or at Anfield.The loss of a leader is always a hard one to take for football fans and Kopites have understandably been rather emotional the past few days.But it seems the Liverpool Echo went a touch too far in their efforts to show support for the stricken Van Dijk.
The publication tweeted - and have since deleted - a message which read: "We're gathering messages of support for Virgil van Dijk."One day, we will watch him defend and watch him score once again - but in the meantime, leave your words of support."
Unsurprisingly, the post didn't go down too well and shortly after it went live, 'RIP Virgil' was trending on Twitter in the UK.
It's the black-and-white image that takes the biscuit. They are aware that he's only injured his knee, right?
Both Van Dijk's injury and Pickford's tackle have dominated the headlines since Saturday afternoon, with some ridiculous takes surfacing.
Some have cried for Pickford to be banned from football for as long as Van Dijk is injured, while one Liverpool fan is planning to protest against the result of the Merseyside derby, which we reported on HERE.
It's all gone a bit mental and we can only hope that the return of the Champions League this week helps to silence the madness we've seen in recent days.
After all, serious injuries - as horrible as they are - are not uncommon in professional football and while Van Dijk has been robbed of a significant amount of playing time, he will return next year.