Kolo Toure injury blow was our fault says Steven Gerrard

Kolo Toure injury blow was our fault says Steven Gerrard        

Liverpool FC captain believes the players should not have let the Notts County game go into extra time

Kolo Toure is treated before being stretchered off the pitch

Liverpool FC are waiting to learn the full extent of Kolo Toure’s groin problem – an injury Steven Gerrard says the Reds’ players are responsible for.
The 32-year-old was stretchered off in extra-time on Tuesday night as Brendan Rodgers’ side struggled to get past League One outfit Notts County and underwent scans yesterday.
Toure is a major doubt for Sunday’s Anfield showdown with Manchester United and the Liverpool captain insists the defender’s team-mates should shoulder some of the blame for his injury.

Steven Gerrard and Kolo Toure

Gerrard says if the Reds had seen off Notts County inside the 90 minutes and avoided extra-time then Toure would not be an injury concern.
Gerrard hopes the Ivory Coast defender recovers quickly and does not miss too many games.
“There’s no doubt playing extra time was a blow for us,” said Gerrard.
“Kolo’s injury came in extra time. He wouldn’t have done that during normal time. We have ourselves to blame for his injury. We have to take responsibility for that.
“There’s an international break coming up, so fingers crossed he doesn’t miss that many games for Liverpool.
“Sunday is a massive game. Kolo has started the season very strongly and we will be very disappointed if he is not fit for the weekend.”
Gerrard hopes the bittersweet victory over Notts County does not come back to haunt Liverpool any further.
With United the visitors on Sunday, the Liverpool skipper says having to play 120 minutes against the League One side was far from ideal.
But Gerrard believes that with players still fresh, they should be able to cope.
“It wasn’t what we wanted,” he said of the tie. “We are going away slightly disappointed. Obviously we are pleased to be through but the evening was exactly what we didn’t want.
“We ended up having to play 120 minutes, and a lot of the players who are probably going to be starting on Sunday have played too much football.
“The plan was to get the game won and done and dusted and try and rest a few for Sunday.

“The only good thing is that because we are at the start of the season, everybody is fit and should be fresh so I hope it shouldn’t be too much of a problem”
He added: “The game got too easy. When you have a lot of inexperience in your team, you can sometimes take your foot off your gas and get punished.
“We were in complete control and it looked like we were going to win by three, four or five. But when you have a lot of youngsters in your team who maybe don’t know how to see a game out, sometimes you can make it very difficult for yourself and that’s what we did.”