Steven Gerrard's injury-plagued season has come to a premature end, Kenny Dalglish has confirmed, with Liverpool and England now waiting to discover whether he requires a second groin operation in two months.
The Liverpool captain will miss the end of a trying club campaign plus England's European Championship qualifier with Switzerland on 4 June having suffered a setback in his recovery from surgery in training seven days ago. Gerrard has made only 24 appearances for Liverpool this term and not enjoyed a consecutive run of more than six games due to injury and suspension.
Dalglish, who also lost the defender Daniel Agger for the rest of the season this week with a knee-tendon problem, said: "We still don't know for definite what the problem is. We are waiting to get a precise answer from the people he has been to see but he won't be involved again this season."
Gerrard underwent surgery to repair his damaged groin only four weeks ago and a second operation has not been ruled out. "Until we find out from the specialists we cannot say anything definitive and it would be wrong for us to say what the situation is or mislead anybody," Dalglish said. "It is best to wait until we know exactly what the problem is and then we will decide whether it is surgery or not."
The 30-year-old has suffered groin problems throughout his career but the Liverpool manager refused to speculate on whether this season's injury record is a cause for long-term concern. "We just have to wait and see. It would be irresponsible of us to pre-judge anything," he said. "It's in a similar area but it's not the same injury so we'll just have to wait and see."
With Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly both also out for up to three weeks with hamstring injuries Liverpool's resources, particularly in defence, will be severely stretched for the visit of Manchester City on Monday. But Dalglish believes the club must continue to pursue European qualification for next season and could, he hopes, take advantage of City's impending FA Cup semi-final with Manchester United.
The Liverpool manager said: "This football club is better than sixth but we've got to prove that on the pitch and we've got to set our ambitions higher than that. It will be a difficult test against City. They had a convincing win over us in the second game of the season but maybe they will be focused more on the semi-final. Sometimes when you can see a trophy at the end of your season your concentration wavers a little bit."
Dalglish denied reports that Juventus had opened talks with Liverpool over making Alberto Aquilani's loan move permanent this summer. As for the recent tie-up between the Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool's owner, and the Miami Heat basketball star LeBron James, the manager added: "I don't know him and he'd probably say the same about me. It's the business side, it's marketing, and he won't be available to play on Monday. But, as I've said before, we have owners who act in the best interests of the club and anything that is beneficial to the club can only help."