Gerrard out for a month
LIVERPOOL captain Steven Gerrard faces up to a month on the sidelines with the hamstring injury he suffered playing for England on Wednesday.
Dr Peter Brukner, Liverpool’s head of sports medicine and sports science, confirmed the midfielder’s injury was “significant”.
“Steven’s been in for an early assessment here and it certainly looks like a significant hamstring injury,” said Brukner. “He’s going to be out for three to four weeks I’d imagine.”
Gerrard was only expected to play for an hour against France, but injuries to other senior players meant he stayed on until the 84th minute.
England manager Fabio Capello’s decision to renege on the agreement prompted a furious response from Liverpool’s head of fitness and conditioning Darren Burgess, who branded the decision to keep Gerrard on as “amateurish” and “disgraceful”.
However, Brukner took a more reasoned approach. He said: “You have got to accept how long they want you to play for. There were obviously circumstances which came together to result in Steven playing for longer than we’d hoped.”
“There were obviously circumstances last night which came together to result in Steven playing for a bit longer than we’d hoped, which is disappointing but there’s nothing we can do about that now.
“We’ll move on and work as hard as we can to get him back playing for Liverpool as soon as possible.”
GERRARD | THE GAMES HE’LL MISS
20 Nov, West Ham (h); 28 Nov, Tottenham (a); 2 Dec, Steaua Bucharest (a); 6 Dec, Aston Villa (h); 11 Dec, Newcastle (a); 15 Dec, Utrecht (a) 18 Dec, Fulham (h).