Steven Gerrard won’t be rushed, says Dalglish

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard may be recovering quicker than anticipated from a groin infection but Reds manager Kenny Dalglish still expects to be without his skipper until next month.

The England midfielder was troubled by a groin problem last season and Liverpool announced last week he would miss the start of the upcoming campaign because of an infection that also required brief hospital treatment to cure.

“Steven won’t be too far away,” Dalglish said.

“All the tests that have come back are far better than what was anticipated so we’re delighted with that for him.

“He’s had some really positive news and we’ll just wait for the progress to continue. But the date that has been mentioned hasn’t been changed.”

Liverpool have conceded three goals in each of their five pre-season games, including defeats by Hull and Galatasaray, but Dalglish was expecting very different results when he could select his first-choice team.

“It could have been better but we’ve had a lot of people coming in at various times.

“Everybody that has been with us has got a reasonable amount of time on the pitch. As we get closer to the Sunderland game (Liverpool’s first match of the new Premier League season) we’ll tune it down a little bit.”