The Steven Gerrard toe jab saga boils down to one simple question: Is it worth risking the long-term fitness of England’s most important player for one qualifying match at Wembley?
England coach Steve McClaren must decide whether to ask Gerrard to play with painkilling injections in his broken toe against Israel on Saturday, or add another senior player to an injured list that already includes Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard David Beckham and Gary Neville.
Im very, very confident that Stevie G will be with us on Saturday,” McClaren said on Tuesday. He wants to play, I want him to play, the team does, the fans do. The whole country does.”
One man who doesn’t is Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez. “We don’t want Steven to play for England with any painkilling injections,” Benitez said on Friday. “We did that in the game against Chelsea and it took four days for him to recover enough to be able to return to training.”
Liverpool bloggers are also understandably cautious. Anfield Banter suggests McClaren should be the one to make the sacrifice, while at Liverpool Pies Dan Burt says he sees no reason for him to play.
The stakes are so high, though, that it would be no real surprise if England feel they can’t do without Gerrard, who has started the season in excellent form. England are down in fourth place in Group E and victories at home to Israel on Saturday and Russia four days later are essential.
“You’ve got to play for your country, haven’t you?” Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards said on Wednesday. “Previous players have before. You would do anything to play for your country.”
Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.
Kevin Fylan
POLL: We’re running a poll on this over at the Reuters Football site so please pop over and vote.
Trackback
17 comments so far
Absolutely he should play. Country comes first every single time.
- Posted by redderthaneverIt’s certainly a tricky one. Country should come first but he’s paid for by Liverpool and being a Liverpool fan I’d find it difficult to reconcile Gerrard coming back and not being able to play for another four weeks.
What would McClaren do if this was the first game in the World cup finals. I bet he’d rest him for the later stages.
I can’t help feeling it smacks of desperation from McClaren. Surely a manager of international quality can adjust tactics and players to compensate for the absence of one or more players. Again what would he do if he lost his best midfielder in a tournament. Ferguson won the European cup without Keane. Benitez won the European cup semi final without Alonso. Looks like McClaren can’t cope.
- Posted by JimI’m going to buck the trend and say - no - absolutely not. I hear that the break is not too serious, but best practice to ensure it heals fully and rapidly is to rest it. How can it possibly be worth risking further injury that could see his fitness for the rest of the season compromised.
Evil Fiona is thinking that he gets paid so much, he deserves a bit of pain (acutually, quite lot of pain).
But nice Fiona is thinking that nobody should be pressurised to go to work when they are not fit, and when doing so could lead to further illness or injury.
I also agree with Jim, that the lack of ideas as to alternative players and tactics doesn’t reflect well on McClaren.
- Posted by fionaRest him for the easier game against Israel; play him against Russia. Seems fairly straightforward to me. He could always be on the bench for Israel, to come in if England are screwed.
- Posted by LondonBeing a liverpool fan id say rest him against Isreal like london said. Why would you u want to risk hurting a player more you know you are going to want to use later on. Forcing him to play with the pain only hampers him longer. But then again thats me and besides my countryside i am routing for isnt 4rth in our group either(ger).
- Posted by cliffIf this were the World Cup final, then yes. As it is just a measly home qualifier, then no, of course not. England can win this without him quite comfortably, and if we can’t the coach wants shooting.
- Posted by RafaSurely playing Gerrard against Israel would be a move in desperation.
- Posted by NachiketAs pointed out by Rafa, its not a world cup final, its only a Euro qualifier and that too against Israel. Israel may have got more points in the group, but surely England has lot more talen to over come them, even without Gerrard. If the English team can’t beat Israel, then they might as well stay home and watch other teams play on the tele.
Hi all, I’m afraid I’m the schmo who believes that Gerrard shouldn’t play for a number of reasons.
Certainly as a Liverpool fan I’m biased, but attempting to put my soccer-mom temazepam enthused support aside for a moment, it should be an easy decision for McClaren not to play Gerrard.
He isn’t 100% fit for starters. As a result there’ll be a chance that he’ll be entirely ineffective.
Depending on the fitness of Hargreaves (who I am led to believe will actually be ok) can a midfield four including him Carrick, Wright-Phillips, and Downing not be trusted to do a job over a team GENEROUSLY ranked at 33 in the world?
It’s certainly a sad indictment on McClaren’s belief in his so called ’support network’ if not. No wonder players who come into the side at short notice give lacklustre performances if they’re not rewarded for their efforts…
Daniel
- Posted by Liverpool Pies EditorNot fit - shouldn’t play. It’s a no brainer. In fact, players who aren’t fit shouldn’t be ALLOWED to play. You should need a certificate from a medical board to be able to play.
- Posted by ElenaI do not sure re: Gerrard case we can play only Sat.
- Posted by ANDREW LANDED1400-19:00 PM
No wonder players get so many injuries, they’re not ever allowed to recover from old injuries. It’s no surprise people are crocked by the time they’re 32…
- Posted by Liverpool Pies EditorWell, whether it’s a good idea or not, it seems Gerrard is going to play. See here: http://football.uk.reuters.com/uk/news/L 07904937.php
And Elena, it seems our reporter Mark meadows had a similar idea to yours. See here: http://blogs.reuters.com/2007/09/07/inde pendent-panels-could-solve-club-v-countr y-rows/
- Posted by Kevin FylanWell surely Gerrard is set to play now, that he has been declared fit by none other than the manager himself. Hopefully he is indeed fit and can perform well and this is not a short sighted hasty decision by the English management.
- Posted by Nachiket KelkarSurely would have liked seeing other young players like Wright Philips, Downing, Bentley in the starting lineup, rather than have a injured man in the playing middle. The youngsters are surely talented and have the quality to take on Israel. And a win would surely give them the much needed confidence of playing international games.
ON THE BENCH
- Posted by Mark HustwayteWhat was all the fuss about? He was pretty average, I thought. Don’t see why he had to play if he was unfit. Is he going to be ready for the Russia game?
- Posted by JJJameson[...] Gerrard’s broken toe and all the media fuss around the English injuries, it has now come the time for Emile Heskey to [...]
- Posted by Heskey breaks toe |absolutly not it will make it worse
- Posted by anonby da was i love you stevy g.