Steven Gerrard picked up a minor hip injury against Arsenal on Saturday and manger Brendan Rodgers is not sure of the extent of the injury which could sideline him for the visit of Fulham and the England friendlies against Chile and Germany.
Rodgers said, ‘He [Gerrard] took a knock towards the end, with his hip. I’m not sure the complete diagnosis on it.
‘Stevie’s been brilliant for me, it was a tough game for him, but we’ll assess his injury and see where he’s at.
‘Roy [Hodgson] has always handled Stevie really well, both when he was Liverpool manager and now the player is England captain, so I’m sure that will be fine.’
Hopefully it is not too serious an injury for Gerrard and he will be back in action soon. Some Liverpool fans may actually be thinking that this injury could have come at the right time. With Fulham at the weekend, it is a ‘relatively’ easy game for the Reds and an opportunity to rest Gerrard and give someone like Joe Allen a chance to play in central midfield.
We always have the club versus country debate and for me, International friendlies are not that important and I would rather have Gerrard resting at home than playing in a friendly. Gerrard is not young anymore and his body is getting on, he needs to be managed well and this could be a perfect opportunity to rest him.
There have been some calls for fans to drop Steven Gerrard as they say he has not been playing well. One just has to look at the Twitter comments below to see how upset some fans are with our captains performances:
rodgers facing a real dilemma with midfield selections. Drop gerrard, lucas or hendo for coutinho? try allen? midfield not good enuff #lfc
— Rich (@R1chJ) November 4, 2013
I hope BR has the courage to drop Gerrard at least for Fulham, a bit like @John_W_Henry (FSG) had to sack an icon like Dalglish for @LFC
— HBS (@cyber_psychosis) November 3, 2013
We should look to rest/drop Gerrard against Fulham. Need him 100% for the derby. Plus its time to change things a bit in the midfield.
— Sai (@TheEngancheRole) November 3, 2013
https://twitter.com/RennyLFC/status/396730230884143104
In January we need to go all out and spend big on a proper CM, drop Gerrard and play him in cameo's high up the pitch. He can't play CM.
— Pricey (@MattieP90) November 2, 2013
Gerrard had an international break coming up too & he looks leggy all the time! BR needs to rest/drop him – give Allen a chance
— Jay (@Jay82_LFC) November 2, 2013
DROP may be the wrong word to use for Gerrard, but rather he should be rested and managed better. He is still a high quality player and offers a great deal of leadership for the Liverpool side. I can not see Rodgers dropping Gerrard at this stage at all but rather resting him a bit more.
Yeah like you would play Lucas before Steven Gerrard . Morons
I agree he Gerrad has to rest more we have big games coming up so even for the friendlies he dont have to play
Please get off Gerrard’s back. JK’s denegrating comments are enough for him to bear. Some foolish commentators (I refuse to call them Reds supporters) have not the mental capacity to understand the importance of the team captain to LFC. Some choose to ignore the value of his leadership and his will to win. At 33 years you want to represent him as a footballing geriatric which is nonsense. Don’t forget he hasn’t played in European competitions and will let BR know when he needs a rest. Don’t be suckered into following the stupid JK line. Listen instead to his teammates – in particular Suarez & Sturridge who know his true value on the pitch. Into the bargain, experience tells us players are more likely to suffer serious injury after a break from the continuity of regular training and competitive playing.