Saturday, July 28, 2007

Rafa happy with Gerrard fitness

Rafa Benitez is confident inspirational skipper Steven Gerrard will be fit for the start of the new Premier League season.Gerrard has been struggling with a stomach strain and played just the dying minutes of Friday's Barclays Asia Trophy Final against Portsmouth.After seeing Gerrard find the target in the penalty shoot-out which went Portsmouth's way, Benitez confirmed the midfielder is on track to feature in the season opener with Aston Villa on August 11 - a game which can be seen live on Setanta Sports."Gerrard is at 80 percent, so we didn't want to take too many risks," said Benitez."We used him at the end and he scored his penalty and in two or three days he will be okay for sure."There is no problem for the start of the season."

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