England captain Steven Gerrard will miss the international friendly against the Republic of Ireland at the end of the month, after it was confirmed today he will undergo shoulder surgery.
The procedure on the chronic injury will be carried out this week and will rule him out of the remainder of Liverpool’s season.
"The captain's injury has progressively worsened in recent weeks and requires an operation to cure it," said a Liverpool statement this afternoon. "Gerrard will now miss the final two games of 2012-13, but he is expected to be fit for the start of pre-season training this summer."
Liverpool are due to face Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, before ending their season with the visit of QPR to Anfield a week later.
The first international meeting of Ireland and England for nearly 20 years is to take place on May 29th at Wembley, while Gerrard will also miss the trip to Rio to face Brazil on June 2nd.
Gerrard, 33 later this month, has had his best season fitness-wise and his appearance in 220th Merseyside derby was his 36th consecutive Premier League start — equalling his previous longest run set between April 2006 and April 2007.
He has played with the shoulder injury for several months but after an early collision with Everton midfielder Leon Osman on Sunday he looked in obvious discomfort. However, it did not prevent him completing 90 minutes — Gerrard has missed only 17 minutes of the league season after being forced off against Newcastle just over a week ago after feeling some pain in the shoulder — and putting in another impressive performance.
But with little to play for in their remaining two matches at Fulham and QPR Liverpool have decided it makes more sense for Gerrard to have an operation now to give him an additional couple of weeks’ rehabilitation.
