Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard could be out of action for up to a month after suffering a hamstring injury on international duty with England on Wednesday.
The Premier League club said on Thursday that Gerrard would have a scan to confirm their early prognosis but that they expect him to be out for “three to four weeks.”
“Steven injured his hamstring last night. He’s just been in for an early assessment here and it certainly looks like a significant hamstring injury,” Dr Peter Brukner, the club’s head of medicine, told Liverpool’s official website.
“He’s just heading off for a scan as we speak and we should have the results of that tonight. He’s going to be out for a little while, I’m afraid. I’d imagine it could be three to four weeks.” Gerrard suffered the injury in the 85th minute of England’s match with France, a match that Liverpool had asked that he only play in for an hour.
“If you put your hand up to play for your country, you’ve got to accept how long they want you to play for,” Dr Brukner said.
“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.” England manager Fabio Capello said on Thursday that he had intended to take Gerrard off earlier but injuries to key players meant he could not do so.
The news is a major blow to Liverpool’s hopes of quickly climbing the Premier League table, in which they lie 11th after a slow start to the season under new manager Roy Hodgson.
