Injury woes for Rafa

Rafael Benitez's Liverpool paid a heavy price for their 1-1 draw with Arsenal, with three top stars suffering injuries.

Benitez is awaiting medical reports on Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, who could all be out for weeks.

Spaniards Torres (abductor) and Alonso (metatarsal) suffered recurrences of injuries that had kept both out for a month.

And Argentinian Mascherano left Anfield with his left foot encased in a heavy medical boot.

These injuries come just days after winger Jermaine Pennant was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the shin, which will rule him out until after Christmas.

Benitez said: "We had problems when we lost Torres and then Alonso. We could not control the midfield then, we also had Mascherano with a foot injury and had lost (Mohamed) Sissoko beforehand with sickness. In the end there were too many problems against a really good team."

He added: "Alonso has suffered the same injury again, the metatarsal, he felt something go in his foot. Torres also has a similar injury, a problem with an abductor muscle.

"Maybe he is not as bad as before. But he could not work as hard as we wanted, we wanted his pace and it was not available.

"He just was not fit. We talked beforehand and he said he was fine. Now we must wait again, he had been out for some time and we have been pushing to get him back, but he has not been right and he still is not right.

"We will need to check them all before we have any idea how long they will be without."

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