A story in today’s Sunday Mirror seems to have been printed to stir up more trouble for Steven Gerrard ahead of the big game on Wednesday. The article in the paper claims that former Liverpool captain Jamie Redknapp’s career as a player, "may have been brought to a premature end by a Steven Gerard tackle.
"
As usual, further reading shows that this statement is misleading. First of all, Jamie himself hasn’t blamed Gerrard for the problem. Secondly, Jamie’s knee problems – the focus of the article – pre-date Stevie’s own professional career.
Jamie, now 31, signed for Southampton earlier in the season after a spell at Spurs. Now Redknapp is set to cross the Atlantic to see a specialist about his knee, and will then decided "whether to quit".
Later in the article the reporter admits that, "Redknapp’s problems were heightened in an accidental clash with Gerrard earlier in the season". In other words, it was accidental, and also something that already existed.
The article quotes one of those famous "close friends" as saying: "Jamie and Steve collided, and unfortunately Jamie came off worse. Since then he has really struggled with the knee problem."
Redknapp’s dad Harry has already said that Jamie has had to have numerous cortisone injections before games this season and should consider quitting. Jamie himself said, "I want to play on as long as I can and would like to help get Saints back into the top flight. But I also have to think about the future and doing all the ordinary things without suffering pain. I will see what the surgeon has to say. Hopefully I can carry on but if he feels that I should pack in then I will have to look at it."
Redknapp’s knee problems can be traced back to a match at Anfield when he was playing against Manchester United. Redknapp had his knee stamped on by a certain United player that day – one of Gerrard’s current England team-mates – and has struggled ever since. Redknapp also suffered injuries when on England duty.