Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was described as “conscious and talking” after suffering a sickening head injury in his team’s Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg victory over Liverpool on Wednesday night.

Bentancur appeared to be knocked unconscious in the opening minutes of the tie as he stooped to head a cross in the Liverpool penalty box. The midfielder seemed to hit his head on the turf with a whiplash effect, with players on both sides immediately calling for medical attention.

Pedro Porro, the Spurs full-back, was the first to reach Bentancur and appeared to be ensuring that his team-mate did not swallow his tongue before the medical staff could reach the 27-year-old. Bentancur was then given an oxygen mask before being placed on a stretcher.

As he was taken down the tunnel after around nine minutes of treatment, Bentancur appeared to give a thumbs-up gesture to the crowd.

Speaking after the match, Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou said: “I don’t have all the information. My understanding is he is conscious and he was conscious when he got to the dressing room. We took him to hospital to get him checked over. It was worrying and always a concern, but from what I know hopefully he will be OK.

“I don’t want to speculate because I don’t know [what happened] either. All I know is he was conscious when he came off the field. I am not going to speculate but it was a head injury and there was concern from players out there, so there was something going on.”

In a club statement issued at half-time, Spurs said: “Rodrigo is conscious, talking and will go to hospital for further checks.”

Bentancur had also suffered a nasty head injury in Tottenham’s opening Premier League match of the season, against Leicester City in August. On that occasion he had required more than five minutes of treatment after a clash of heads with Abdul Fatawu before also being carried off, though Postecoglou confirmed after the match that he was “conscious and communicating”.

After sitting out the games against Everton and Newcastle, as well as the international break, he returned to action against Arsenal the following month. Bentancur also missed seven games this season after he was banned by the Football Association for using a racial slur about Son Heung-min, his Spurs team-mate.