Goalkeeper Karius leaves the match

Schalke's clash with Hoffenheim, which the visitors edged 2-1 in the German Bundesliga, turned terrifying in the second half. Goalkeeper Loris Karius took a heavy blow to the head in a violent collision with teammate Robin Gosens, stopping the match for several minutes as players and fans looked on in anxiety.

German newspaper "Bild" picked apart the incident in the 47th minute. Vesnik Aslani fired a powerful shot from 14 metres out that Karius could not control, so Gosens rushed in to clear it. The goalkeeper lunged at the same moment, and his teammate's outstretched leg caught his head, sending him crashing to the ground.

For several minutes Karius lay on the pitch while the medical staff treated him. Silence fell over the stadium. The fans stopped cheering, and Kevin Müller, Schalke's substitute goalkeeper, began warming up in case the first choice could not carry on.

A cut to the nose was the damage, and Karius walked off under his own steam with Müller taking his place. The collision had claimed a second casualty. Gosens twisted his knee against the goalkeeper's body and limped off with a thick bandage strapped on, replaced by Vitaly Becker.

The injury capped a miserable night for Karius. He had already made telling errors in the first half, gifting Hoffenheim their opener in the tenth minute when he fumbled a simple back pass from Al-Fawzi. The ball ran to Aslani and rebounded off his foot past the keeper into the net.

Hoffenheim doubled their lead on 26 minutes. Lemperle pounced on a defensive lapse from Korokai, exchanged passes with Aslani and buried it from ten metres out, sending the hosts in two goals up at the break.

Shaken at the start of the second half, Schalke refused to fold and kept pushing to get back into the match. Junior Adamu pulled one back in the 81st minute, but the equaliser never came, and Hoffenheim held on for a 2-1 win.