THE COST of an agonising night at Goodison
Park increased for Liverpool yesterday when it was confirmed that
Steven Gerrard could miss their Champions League encounter at Real
Madrid due to a hamstring tear suffered in the 1-0 FA Cup defeat by
Everton.
The midfielder is a certain absentee from Liverpool’s league
trip to Portsmouth tomorrow, the England friendly with Spain in
Seville next week and his club’s home game with Manchester City on
February 22nd after scans revealed he tore his left hamstring
during the fourth-round exit. The loss represents a severe setback
to Rafael Benitez who now faces returning to his native Madrid
without his captain.
Gerrard “will be out of action for about three weeks”, a club
spokesman confirmed, after the 28-year-old limped off 16 minutes
into the replay at Goodison. The first leg of Liverpool’s last-16
meeting with Real takes place at the Bernabeu on February 25th –
exactly three weeks on from the FA Cup tie – and Gerrard will
undergo an intensive rehabilitation programme designed for him to
meet that date.
Liverpool will take no chances with Gerrard’s fitness for the
Champions League tie, however, having lost Fernando Torres for two
extended spells this season with a similar injury. Gerrard himself
signalled to be replaced as soon as he felt the problem on
Wednesday night and will not be risked as Liverpool enter a
critical phase in their pursuit of both the Champions League and
the Premier League titles.
The impact of Gerrard’s absence was immediately apparent against
Everton, with Liverpool offering minimal threat without their
leading scorer, the man responsible for their goal in each of the
two preceding Merseyside derbies and 16 in total this season.
It is also unfortunate timing for Benitez, who had factored
Gerrard’s partnership with Torres – one that has yielded 77 goals
in the past 19 months – in his decision to offload Republic of
Ireland captain Robbie Keane to Tottenham Hotspur.
Benitez conceded the timing of Keane’s exit had posed a risk to
Liverpool’s aspirations this season, given that the deadline-day
departure allowed no time to sign a replacement. But the Liverpool
manager has insisted that, in Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel and David Ngog
among others, he has the options to sustain the club’s challenge at
home and abroad. Kuyt said yesterday: “The key now is how we react
to this defeat. The positive thing from our point of view is that
on the two other occasions we have lost games this season we
managed to come back in the weeks that followed. That is what we
must do now.”