England International and Liverpool’s heart and soul, Steven Gerrard is set to miss a couple of matches that could include England qualifiers after Rafa Benitez confirmed the midfielder needs surgery on his groin.

The 28 year old is set to have the operation on Thursday and will need somewhere in the region of 10 - 15 days of recovery time, meaning he could miss matches against Aston Villa on Sunday, England duty at home against Andorra, away four days later at Croatia and finally against Manchester United on September 13th.

“He has a groin problem, we knew it could be like this. He had a problem and now he will have an operation and will be out for 10-15 days.

“He needs to have it because he is having pain with it. When he went with the national team we knew he had a problem and in the first leg too,” said Benitez.
image via Towleroad

To the Gentleman who cheap shotted me from behind as I went up for a header in the 90th minute, thanks for the AstroTurf burn on my back fat.

Appreciated.

Boca Juniors 2 - 1 Apertura win came at a high price at the weekend as 32 year old Martin Palermo again damaged cruciate ligaments (ACL) in his right knee after an awkward fall just before halftime, the same knee and injury he had back in 1999.

With the surgery expected to take place Tuesday, Boca doctor Jose Veiga told Radio la Red, ‘We found out exactly what we didn’t want to discover.

‘Martin firstly injured the inner ligament and then the effort tore the cruciate ones. He will need five to eight months to recover.’

Palermo has scored the most goals in the history of Boca, surpassing the mark of Francisco Varallo at 193 and record held since 1939.

image via Cache

Seeing players go down with injuries is part of the game. But sometimes, these injuries are much worse than what we are used to seeing. Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini suffered suffered serious head injuries and more recently we saw Gilberto go down with an awful leg injury. This weekend in the Man City v West Ham game, City teammates Micah Richards and Tal Ben Haim clashed heads. The result was Micah Richards ended up being unconscious for eigth minutes and had to be stretchered off.  Luckily it looks like Micah escaped serious injury and he is expected to make a quick return to the game.

[Guardian]

Those were some dope ass hand stands though…

Jonathan Woodgate was the only player missing from training today (most likely because of his injury history) as Fabio Capello’s English National Team started preparations ahead of their friendly clash with the Czech Republic on Wednesday at Wembley Stadium.

Manchester United’s Michael Carrick had to pull out of the squad after suffering an ankle injury against Newcastle United on Sunday, with Tottenham’s Jermain Jenas drafted in as his replacement.

image via Soccer_Heaven

Warning - Injury

Ummm… yeah.

With Arsenal facing FC Twente in a Champions League qualifier tonight, now is not the time to face an injury crisis. Failure to qualify for the group stages would cost the Gunners some £25m in potential income, and that would be no bueno. Cesc Fabregas is the latest Arsenal player to suffer an injury setback, leaving Arsene Wenger without NINE players for tonights qualifier.

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Isn’t there supposed to be a net behind the goal?

DOUBLE UPDATE - Ribery has been scheduled to have the screw(s) removed from the initial surgery on Friday with hopes that he will be fit for action sometime in September.

UPDATE - Bayern Munich Chairman Karl-Heinze Rumminegge has stated that Ribery’s surgery in Basel, Switzerland was a success and the torn ligament in his left ankle have been repaired.

Every Munich player involved with the 2008 Euros will have at least three weeks off at the end and with Ribery’s eight week recovery period, you’d have to say it will be a welcome rest that will allow him to shut down and get his body back after an extremely long season.

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