Injury puts Gerrard out for three weeks

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13 April 2012

Rafa Benitez suffered a blow today when Steven Gerrard was ruled out for three weeks after tearing his hamstring during Liverpool's FA Cup defeat.

The skipper limped off just 16 minutes into the fourth-round replay and will miss Premier League games against Portsmouth and Manchester City and probably the first leg of the Champions League tie with Real Madrid on 25 February.

He is also out of England's friendly in Spain next Wednesday.

A club spokesman said: "A scan today has confirmed a tear in the hamstring of Steven's left leg. He will be out of action for about three weeks."

Benitez fears that Gerrard's injury is the result of playing so many games.

"Steven was tired and he gets injured," said the Liverpool manager.

"He was tired, too, in our match at Wigan last week but when I took him off there everyone was saying he had to play every single minute of every match. Now you have all seen the consequences.

"He asked to be taken off, you could see at Wigan he was struggling and the same thing happened here."

Liverpool came into the game on the back of their 2-0 victory over title rivals Chelsea, who had Frank Lampard sent off.

Last night it was the Reds who saw red as Lucas was dismissed in the second half of normal time.

Benitez said: "We are disappointed, to play for a long time with 10 men and to concede like that from a deflection at the end.

"The turning point was the second yellow card for Lucas. I was not happy, but I do not want to say anything about the referee."

Teenager Gosling, signed from Plymouth last season, struck the injury-time winner - missed by the ITV cameras covering the match as the network inexplicably went to an advert break during play - to set-up a fifth-round home tie with Aston Villa on 15 February.

Everton boss David Moyes urged fans to keep the win in perspective.

He said: "We haven't won the Cup just yet. It was a great result and everyone was really desperate for it. But let's not think the Cup is already here, there is a very, very long way to go yet.

"We are in the fifth round but the draw has not been kind to us. First we had to beat Liverpool and now we have Aston Villa next."

Moyes was proud of his team but had special praise for 19-year-old Gosling. He said: "I enjoyed that one but we move on now.

"I was delighted with the two youngsters, Gosling and [Jack] Rodwell, to come on in such an important cup tie and play like that.

"But it says, too, a lot about the other players. We have had so many injuries and we picked up more during the match.

"I did not have any worries about putting on the two youngsters. Gosling is a good lad, he wants to learn and is a good trainer."

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Injury puts Gerrard out for three weeks

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