The midfielder flew back to Merseyside last night with his right foot heavily bandaged having been the victim of a cynical stamp from Toulouse's Achille Emana during the second half.
He was substituted after the incident and immediately headed to the dressing room for ice treatment where he was examined by the Liverpool medical staff.
Even at this early stage of the season Liverpool's league meeting with Chelsea is a match of huge significance and it is one the Anfield manager, Rafael Benítez, will be desperate for Gerrard to play in. The Spaniard said last night it was too early to make a prognosis on Gerrard and that he would await the outcome of x-rays and scans this morning.
But it is thought that Gerrard believes he will not make his club's first home game of the season. He is unable to put a great deal of weight on the foot, although it is not believed to be a broken metatarsal as is the case with Wayne Rooney.
The injury will be another blow to the England head coach, Steve McClaren, before the game with Germany at Wembley next Wednesday. McClaren wanted to use the game to prepare for the Euro 2008 qualifiying matches against Israel and Russia but sidelined players have put a major spanner into his plans. Rooney is out of the game while Gerrard and David Beckham appear unlikely to play.
The Gerrard injury aside, Benítez was content enough with the performance in Toulouse, the first-leg tie being settled by a first-half strike by Andriy Voronin.
When the forward arrived at Anfield last month he pledged to make a much bigger impact on English football than his fellow Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko managed at Chelsea last season. Yesterday he suggested this was no empty promise by scoring a superlative winner as his new side took their first steps along the road to Moscow and next May's Champions League final.
The Merseysiders' mood was buoyant at the end of a low-tempo game, which had been drifting, goalless, towards half-time when Peter Crouch flicked Steve Finnan's long pass in Voronin's direction. Chesting the ball down adroitly, the Ukrainian allowed it to bounce before dispatching the most eye-catching of half-volleys from 25 yards, the ball arcing imperiously and, inexorably, into the top corner.
"A fantastic goal," enthused Benítez. "Voronin is an intelligent striker and we always knew he could be a revelation. He does different things."
The Ukrainian frequently exhibited his penchant for dropping deep and cleverly finding space. Indeed, if he supplies many more of these sort of performances, the ultra-hyped Fernando Torres will find he has a lot to live up to.
Elie Baup's team should not be patronised after finishing third in the French League last season and defeating Lyon, the champions, here last weekend. Configured in 4-1-4-1 mode, their multi-layered formation initially seemed to confound a Liverpool ensemble featuring Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun and Voronin. Although Gerrard directed an early free-kick wide of the base of the far post from a promising position, last season's losing Champions League finalists started slowly.
Alarmingly for Benítez, Javier Mascherano and Sami Hyypia appeared to be mentally elsewhere as Cesar skipped past them before being thwarted by Jamie Carragher's perfectly timed, penalty area interception. It was the cue for the Liverpool manager to order the subdued Babel and Benayoun to swap wings and the latter's move to his preferred right side succeeded in livening up the Merseysiders.
The tempo remained slow enough to satisfy Toulouse and make a mockery of what looked an unusually attack-minded Benítez starting line-up. Indeed, had a dangerous, defence-splitting pass from Cesar not been fractionally overhit, the Swedish striker Johan Elmander would have been presented with an excellent chance. Within a couple of minutes Voronin's stunning strike had altered the course of the match but Elmander nearly equalised courtesy of a spectacular overhead bicycle kick which flew narrowly wide.
"We did a professional job in difficult conditions," said Benitez.