Gerrard thus became the third England international to have suffered a fractured toe, following the Chelsea pair Frank Lampard and John Terry. He is nevertheless expected to be able to go toe-to-toe with Lampard on Sunday afternoon when Liverpool entertain Chelsea at Anfield. Terry, having recovered from a separate knee injury, is also expected to play.
However, Gerrard is then expected to be withdrawn from the England squad for next week's Wembley friendly against Germany, as the Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, confirmed yesterday.
"I think he will be available for the weekend, but if we push him for that he will have to rest afterwards," Benitez said. "Steven has a hairline fracture at the tip of his big toe, it's not a metatarsal injury. We need to see in the next few days. He wants to play against Chelsea, and the doctor reckons that Steven will be able to manage it.
"It's not serious but we have to be careful. It's not a big risk, but we can push him and then he needs rest. He will need an injection but then he can play without pain against Chelsea.
"I haven't spoken to Steve McClaren, but it would be a big risk for Steven to play next week for England and push him for that game. If we want to use him on Sunday, maybe we will have to rest him for two days now and after the game make sure he has more rest, maybe one week or 10 days."
The friendly match was supposed to be a warm-up for next month's European Championship qualifiers against Israel and Russia, but McClaren is so beset by injuries he may be forced to field a shadow team. In central midfield, for example, he is likely to field Lampard and Michael Carrick, as opposed to a likely first-choice pairing of Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves.
Benitez is not short of options should he wish to rest Gerrard. The Liverpool manager can perm two central midfielders from Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso and Mohamed Sissoko.
Benitez has even more riches in attack, where he must choose from five forwards following the arrival of Andrei Voronin, record signing Fernando Torres, and Ryan Babel.
"We've got more options going forward now which I'm sure will help us against Chelsea," said Steve Finnan yesterday. "We've played a lot of matches against them in recent years and some of them have been cagey but I'm sure we'll be looking to attack at home.
"The squad is improving all the time, we've lots of quality."
Benitez insists his resources are still thinner than Chelsea and Manchester United, but the gap is clearly closing and in individual matches there has been little to choose between the teams. Sunday's game will be the 16th meeting of Liverpool and Chelsea in barely three seasons and while Chelsea have a slight edge in results Liverpool have won the most important matches.
Benitez has had to overcome Peter Crouch's problems with team rotation this week. Crouch stressed he and Benitez had settled their differences. "I was disappointed not to play at Villa," said Crouch "The manager explained it will be a long season - and he proved what he meant by replacing the strikers who started at Villa with me and Andrei Voronin in Toulouse.
"I am sure he will chop and change, but everyone will play their fair share. Everyone knows players want to play. "Whenever I am called upon I will be ready - I am not the kind to go screaming and kicking down doors. I have got to prove in training I should be in the team"