ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:STEVEN GERRARD will miss Liverpool's attempt to salvage their Europa League campaign and England's European Championship qualifier against Wales after undergoing surgery on a groin injury.
The Liverpool captain will be out for up to four weeks after an operation to repair a problem that has plagued him since the win at Chelsea early in February.
Gerrard will also miss the league game against Sunderland.
Fernando Torres has revealed he resolved to leave Liverpool long before his January transfer to Chelsea because the club were in “chaos”. In a damning assessment, the striker said he could not reject a move to Stamford Bridge because the remaining six months of this season would have felt like three years at Anfield.
Torres hit out at the direction Liverpool have taken, describing them as a club no longer living up to their history and unable to compete with England’s biggest teams.
"[Leaving Liverpool] was a decision I had mulled over for a long time, even though it appeared to be taken very hastily," Torres told Spanish paper Marca. "I had made up my mind a long time before. In the summer in which Xabi Alonso left [2009] I started to wonder.
“I had the best three years of my career at Liverpool. I thought I was at the best club around, one that would win things with time. But when Xabi and Mascherano left, and before them Crouch and Arbeloa; when reinforcements didn’t arrive, I started to wonder if Liverpool was the club its history suggests or if it was in fact a selling club.
“I knew I was an idol at the club but it was no longer the same. There was also the departure of Benitez and the club was in chaos with the sale. There was so much said, so much talk about projects, but then nothing. It reminded me of Atletico Madrid: great history, lots of ideas, but without money you need time. And I didn’t have much of that.”
Torres said he tried to move in the summer but was told he could not with Liverpool in the midst of a battle over ownership. “The club was not the same, it wasn’t heading in the direction I thought it should head in and I could see that a change was needed.
“What other teams could I have gone to? I couldn’t go to [Manchester] United out of respect for Liverpool. Or Madrid, because of my past. I don’t think Barcelona needed anyone. I didn’t like the idea of Italy. Chelsea were the only club left. There was only one option.
“In fact, I thought there were no options at all until Chelsea appeared out of nowhere. The idea was in my head before but it was a long way from being a reality.”
Guardian Service
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