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.�