Rafa's defensive headache

Rafa Benitez has spoken of his Liverpool defensive headache as Sami Hyypia, Alvaro Arbeloa and Daniel Agger are all suffering with injuries both minor and major. Benitez has admitted that the injuries couldn't have come at a worse time.

"Sami has an ankle problem, it is a difficult situation," said the manager.

"Arbeloa is out with flu, so we have no real cover. This could now be a real problem.

"Daniel Agger is closer, he has been training this week. We will wait to see how Sami is but we can use Jack or we could push Agger to play, we will wait and see.

"Now you can see the problem and why we have been searching for re-enforcements, we have been playing with a big risk. And Jamie Carragher has four yellow cards so that just makes the problem more worrying.

"But Agger and Hobbs are both training and Arbeloa will recover from his bout of sickness. All that will be a big boost for us.

"We have tried to protect our centre-backs but it has been a long time playing with this risk.

"We would not have wanted to play Sami for this long in defence. Everyone was thinking that Sami would play some games with both Agger and Carra to give him a rest.

"We have not been able to do that, and now we could have a real problem with his injury."