Thursday, October 15, 2009

Liverpool FC Keep Fingers Crossed Ahead Of International Fixtures

Liverpool received a mixed medical bulletin yesterday as Rafael Benitez keeps his fingers crossed ahead of the latest round of international fixtures.

Steven Gerrard limped out of the morning’s England training session with a groin problem and will miss Wednesday night’s final World Cup qualifier against Belarus at Wembley.

But Fernando Torres has suffered no muscle damage after undergoing a scan on a similar problem sustained while playing for Spain over the weekend.

Gerrard was initially injured during England’s 1-0 defeat in Ukraine on Saturday, lasting only until half-time before being substituted by Fabio Capello.

The Liverpool skipper has now returned to Melwood for further treatment, and must already be considered a doubt for Saturday’s Premier League visit to Sunderland.

Capello said yesterday: “He didn’t finish training because the pain was the same as yesterday. He tried to practice in training but after 10 minutes had to stop.”

The injury to Gerrard will serve only to increase Benitez’s discontent with international breaks, particularly as this week’s double-header is made up of essentially meaningless games with England already through to next year’s finals in South Africa.

Benitez’s mood will not have been lifted by the allowed withdrawal of Wayne Rooney on Sunday morning, despite the Manchester United striker picking up no obvious injury in Ukraine.

However, there was better news for Benitez from the Spanish camp with Torres having resumed training.

The striker was substituted shortly after half-time of Spain’s 2-1 win against Armenia, and underwent a scan earlier this week which revealed no evidence of muscle damage.

But with Spain having also previously secured qualified for the World Cup, it is unlikely Torres will be risked when Vicente Del Bosque’s side wrap up their qualification campaign in Bosnia on Wednesday night.

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