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Gerrard To Miss Two World Cup Qualifiers
Thursday 28 August 2008 at 09:02
 England will be without Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard for their first two World Cup qualifiers, his club's manager Rafael Benitez has revealed.
The midfielder is having an operation today to fix a persistent groin injury and Benitez believes he could be out for as long as two weeks, meaning he will miss Andorra v England and Croatia v England.
Gerrard will also be unable to take part in two important Premier League fixtures, against Aston Villa and Manchester United.
"He has a groin problem, we knew it could be like this," Benitez remarked. "He had a problem and now he will have an operation and will be out for ten to 15 days."
England are the favourites to win their World Cup qualifying group at the bookmakers and Gerrard's early absences have done little to affect the betting market, where the country are available at 6/5 with SkyBet.
Croatia away will provide England with their toughest test, the odds suggest, with the eastern Europeans 13/8 progress from the qualification stage in first place at Stan James.
Andorra appears to be a much easier task, however, with 888Sport pricing their chances of group victory at a whopping 10000/1.
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