JAMIE CARRAGHER is expected to recover from a gash on his shin in time to face Aston Villa at the end of the month.
The 35-year-old defender missed the weekend’s game at St Mary’s where Liverpool lost 3-1 against relegation threatened Southampton.
Carragher sustained internal bleeding and bruising after being caught on the shin by Tottenham Hotspur defender Michael Dawson in the game at Anfield last weekend.
Carragher, who intends to retire at the end of the season, has overtaken Martin Skrtel as the first-choice centre-half partner for Daniel Agger in recent months and his absence was felt on the south coast.
Manager Brendan Rodgers says had the game been 48 hours later then Carragher would have stood a greater chance of being passed fit.
And with no game until March 31 when Liverpool travel to Aston Villa, the Anfield boss fully expects Carragher to be ready in time for the match at Villa Park.
Carragher, who will resume training by the middle of this week, is likely to go straight back into the side after Liverpool conceded poor goals on Saturday and fell to a first league defeat in four games.
Rodgers refused to blame any individuals but says the whole team failed to defend well enough.
“We defend from the foot,” he said. “It’s the team. We never defended well as a team so it is unfair to criticise them two (Skrtel and Agger).
“They will be disappointed, of course, as all defenders are when you concede goals. We’ve been on a run of late where we either don’t concede or we do and concede two or three. Our defensive line always starts from the front of the pitch.”
The majority of the Liverpool squad have left the club to join up with their countries’ teams for a week of international fixtures.
Rodgers admits he will be limited with what he can do at Melwood but says he can give the few that remain closer attention on the training pitch.
“We’ve got about seven players left because a lot of the group goes away this week,” he said.
“You can work individually with players. Obviously there is very little team work you can do. A few of them are travelling quite a long way, like Luis Suarez who is going to South America, but you get that at big clubs. We have just got to go away and reflect because it is important to us to maintain the efforts which have been getting us results. We’ve let those standards slip a wee bit so we need to get refocused and I’m sure we’ll see a different side against Villa.”
