Peter Crouch has been ruled out for up to three weeks after a scan on the hamstring injury that forced him out of Liverpool's Champions League success over FBK Kaunus. The £7million striker limped off after just 54 minutes at Anfield last night, and is now is certain to miss next week's third qualifying round first leg.
He will also miss the start of the Barclays Premiership campaign but is suspended for the first two games against Middlesbrough and Sunderland anyway.
With the August 27 match against Arsenal postponed because of the European Super Cup, Crouch may now have to wait until the trip to Tottenham on September 10 to make his Premiership debut.
But boss Rafael Benitez will hope to have him back in contention for the second leg of the Champions League qualifier against CSKA Sofia or Dinamo Tirana on August 23.
Benitez said: "The partnership between Crouch and (Djibril) Cisse was working well. We have Cisse's pace and the alternative qualities of Crouch.
"Against Kaunus we had decided that in the second half we needed to play the ball in the air more, but unfortunately the plan only lasted a few minutes of the second period.
"We could see that Peter was holding the back of his leg and we decided to change him quickly because it was obviously a hamstring problem.
"You need to protect players in such situations to avoid even worse problems.
"I don't think we are short of numbers up front. We have let Anthony Le Tallec go out on loan, but we have (Milan) Baros, (Fernando) Morientes, Luis Garcia, Cisse. They are all good players."
And with the prospect of Baros leaving for Everton seemingly having hit a major snag over the £7million fee Liverpool are demanding, Benitez may even be prepared to re-consider the decision to sell the Czech.
He may still not risk cup-tying him in Europe, but Baros could well be needed for the opening league matches with the transfer deadline not until the last day of August.
Crouch said: "I have no real idea how long it will be.
"I was enjoying my home debut, it was great to finally get the chance to play at Anfield because we have been on the road for a long time since I signed.
"I would have wanted to finish the game, obviously, so it was really frustrating to pick up an injury like that.
"I was beginning to really enjoy things, so the hamstring was a real disappointment."
Some quarter in the press are once again pushing the possibility that Liverpool will be in to sign Michael Owen, after it was revealed that he had spoken to four Premiership teams.
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