Here is an example of what you need to worry about:
Take an $n$-dimensional vector space $V$ with a basis $e_i$, consider the dual basis $e_i^*$ in $V^*$, and define a tensor $I = \sum_{i = 1}^n e_i \otimes e_i^*$.
Consider a map $\psi \colon V \otimes V^* \to V \otimes V^*$ given by $\psi(v \otimes y) = v \otimes y - \frac{1}{n}y(v)\cdot I$
It is not injective: one can check that $\psi(I) = 0$.
But if $n \geq 3$, then it is true that $\psi(u \otimes x) = \psi(v \otimes y) \Rightarrow u \otimes x = v \otimes v$