Liverpool suffered a huge blow last month when Virgil van Dijk tore his ACL.

The Dutchman was on the other end of a heavy challenge from Jordan Pickford in the Merseyide derby and will not be out for around 7-9 months.

Prior to his injury, Van Dijk has firmly established himself as the best centre-back in the world.

But how does his salary compare to the highest-paid centre-backs in the Premier League?

Using data provided by Spotrac, we've listed the 25 highest earning central defenders in England's top tier.

Virgil van Dijk in action for Liverpool

The salaries listed below are every players' base wage. Bonuses are not taken into account.

It's also important to note that Spotrac do not have figures for some new arrivals to the Premier League. Gabriel Magalhães and Ruben Dias are likely among the top 25 but their salaries are unknown.

=23. Gary Cahill - £65,000-per-week

=23. Michael Keane - £65,000-per-week

=23. Davinson Sanchez - £65,000-per-week

22. Issa Diop - £67,000-per-week

21. Angelo Ogbonna - £70,000-per-week

Keane has been impressive for Everton to open the season and looks well worth the money Everton are paying him.

West Ham's duo of Diop and Ogbonna are among the highest-paid defenders in the Premier League.

Michael Keane in action for Everton

20. Phil Jones - £75,000-per-week

=15. Andreas Christensen - £80,000-per-week

=15. Jonny Evans - £80,000-per-week

=15. Eric Bailly - £80,000-per-week

=15. Marcos Rojo - £80,000-per-week

Manchester United are paying Jones and Rojo a lot of money to rot away in the reserves.

Bailly and Christensen are also earning a lot of money for United and Chelsea respectively despite not being first-choice.

Phil Jones in action for Man United

=15. Toby Alderweireld - £80,000-per-week

14. Shkodran Mustafi - £90,000-per-week

13. Sokratis Papastathopoulos - £92,000-per-week

12. Nathan Ake - £92,308-per-week

=8. Joel Matip - £100,000-per-week

To say that Arsenal are overpaying for Mustafi and Sokratis would be an understatement. 

Both players will likely be off the wage books next summer.

Shkodran Mustafi in action for Arsenal

=8. Antonio Rudiger - £100,000-per-week

=8. Mamadou Sakho - £100,000-per-week

=8. John Stones - £100,000-per-week

7. David Luiz - £100-962-per-week

6. Thiago Silva - £110,000-per-week

How is Sakho earning £100,000-per-week?! On his day he's a great defender but he has way too many mistakes in him.

Luiz is also error prone and earns slightly less than Chelsea's summer signing, Silva.

Thiago Silva in action for Chelsea

=3. Victor Lindelof - £120,000-per-week

=3. Aymeric Laporte - £120,000-per-week

=3. Yerry Mina - £120,000-per-week

2. Harry Maguire - £162,775-per-week

1. Virgil van Dijk - £190,000-per-week

Lindelof is a decent defender but does he deserve to be among the five highest-paid players in his position? We don't think so.

The fact that both Lindelof and Mina earn the same amount as Laporte is surprising. The Frenchman is easily the second best defender in England's top tier.

Maguire is comfortably the second highest earning centre-back in the league. He hasn't shown why that's the case with some poor displays over the past few months.

Van Dijk takes top spot and rightly so. He has earned every penny over the last few years.