Sunday, December 05, 2010

Hodgson Calms Fears Over Extended Gerrard Absence

Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson insists Steven Gerrard is still on course to return against Newcastle in a week's time, following the captain's fears that he had suffered an injury setback.

Gerrard tore his hamstring in England's friendly defeat to France, and has spent the past month in rehabilitation. Liverpool's head of sports medicine, Dr Peter Brukner, recently revealed the midfielder's recovery was going well, with Aston Villa the final league fixture to be missed by the Liverpool skipper.

However, Gerrard believed he had aggravated the problem earlier this week, calling on the expertise of the doctors, but Hodgson insists there has been no setback.

"There's no problem with Steven," said the Liverpool manager. "It turned out that he just tweaked a bit of scar tissue.

"I spoke to him after Tuesday's training and he did say he felt he had tweaked something. But the medical people have had a look at him and said it was nothing, it was only scar tissue.

"It's fine and when he went back to training again he was fine. It's not a setback to his planned comeback and he should be fine."

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