HE’S ONLY BACK from a lengthy injury lay-off, but it looks like Steven Gerrard could well be facing another spell on the sidelines.
The England international suffered a minor cut to his ankle in training last week, and owing either to poor treatment or dreadful luck (a combination of both, perhaps?), the injury became infected over the course of the weekend, forcing the 31-year-old to undergo a procedure to drain fluid from the afflicted area.
As the Guardian’s Nick Nick Duxbury reports, the club’s manager, Kenny Dalglish, isn’t too concerned.
“Steven has got an infection in his ankle… It has nothing to do with any injures before. It’s an infection. I suppose it’s like having an abscess in your mouth.”
Dalglish’s optimism sits uncomfortably alongside photos published in this morning’s Daily Telegraph that appear to show the midfielder leaving a Merseyside hospital yesterday evening on crutches, sporting a large plaster cast on his right leg.
Though a timeframe for the Premier League veteran’s recovery has yet to be set, it looks likely that he could miss both the next round of Premier League fixtures and England’s forthcoming international friendlies with Sweden and Spain, matches in which Fabio Capello had been hoping to Gerrard’s fitness.
