Fernando Torres, the Liverpool striker, is set to be ruled out for an additional three weeks with a groin problem, according to Rafael Benitez, the manager, further adding to the club’s injury woes.
“We are talking of two or three weeks out now for Fernando,” Benitez said. “The hamstrings for [Albert] Riera and [Yossi] Benayoun could be the same and [Daniel] Agger has more problems with his back.”
Meanwhile, Glen Johnson, the England right back, has conceded that his club are in “awful” form.
Johnson was man of the match as Liverpool struggled to a 2-2 draw with Birmingham City on Monday night, their equaliser a hotly-debated penalty from Steven Gerrard after David Ngog was accused of diving. The result means Liverpool have won only one of their past nine matches.
There seems no end to Liverpool’s nightmare, with them now trailing Chelsea, the Barclays Premier League leaders, by 11 points, but Johnson believes he can see green shoots of a revival.
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“The record sounds awful and it is awful for a club like Liverpool,” Johnson said. “But things like this happen in football. You stick together and keep fighting. “We have seen in the league that everyone can beat everyone; if someone had told you at the start of the season that we’d win one in nine, you’d have laughed your head off.
“We will just look to get as many points as we can as quickly as possible then have a look at the end of the season and see where we are.
“Unfortunately we have picked up a couple more injuries but the sooner we get the lads back together the better it will be for everyone.”
On the draw with Birmingham, Johnson said: “We want to be winning these games and I felt we did more than enough to take three points but it just wasn’t meant to be.
“You could say we could have dealt with the first [Birmingham goal] better but [Cameron] Jerome has hit the strike of his life for their second goal.
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“We had chances, we dominated the game and you can see everyone was working for the cause. It’s just one of those times for us at the minute and we just need to keep working.
“As long as we keep showing the togetherness and passion that we did here, then I am sure we will come through with a smile on our face.”