Cisse injury leaves Liverpool short up front

Liverpool's Djibril Cisse is taken off after suffereing a suspected broken leg at Blackburn during a Premier League football match at Ewood Park.

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was left counting the cost following a 2-2 draw against bottom-placed Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park which left French striker Djibril Cisse in hospital with a broken leg.

Cisse, signed for 14 million pounds from Auxerre this summer, was stretchered off late in the first half, in clear distress after an innocuous challenge from Blackburn youngster Jay McEveley left the Liverpool man catching his foot in the turf.

The expected season-long absence of an automatic first choice striker will prove a disastrous blow to a Liverpool team still struggling to find consistency under Benitez, and having failed to replace Michael Owen after his early season departure for Real Madrid.

It leaves Milan Baros and young reserves Neil Mellor and Florent Sinama-Pongolle as the only fit recognised strikers in the Liverpool first team squad.

Liverpool spokesman Ian Cotton said in a statement: "Our club doctor Mark Waller has confirmed that Djibril Cisse suffered a fracture of the tibia and fracture of the fibula in his left leg.

"Djibril will undergo surgery on Sunday morning to insert a pin in the tibia. Unfortunately he is unlikely to play again this season and everybody at the club wishes him the speediest of recoveries."

Liverpool's Djimi Traore (R) vies with Blackburn's Barry Ferguson during their Premier League football match at Ewood Park.

A goal from John Arne Riise - the Norwegian's second in as many games at the end of a year and a half without a goal - gave Liverpool the lead only for defensive errors to gift Blackburn their two goals, claimed by debutant Jay Bothroyd and Australian Brett Emerton.

Baros showed his worth to Liverpool by scoring a second half equaliser, his seventh goal of the season, but it was another disappointing away performance by the Reds.

"They must be happy with a point," said Benitez. "Because in the last 10 minutes we had two or three opportunities which means that we kept running and fighting for the full 90 minutes.

"But we have many players who know the Premier League. Okay, if we talk about Josemi, Xabi Alonso, Luis Garcia, they are new, but the other players know the Premier League perfectly.

"We should know if we are winning games we need to concentrate more. We lost concentration on the last ball of the first half and they scored, you can't concede that kind of goal."

Blackburn manager Mark Hughes paid tribute to the character displayed by his team after successive 4-0 defeats in the Premiership had left them rooted to the foot of the table.

Liverpool's Milan Baros (R) and Blackburn's Nils-Eric Johansson challenge for the ball in a Premier League match at Ewood Park.

"We had to make a statement tonight," said Hughes. "And I think the players have done that. We are not happy with where we are in the table but there are reasons behind that.

"We've played all the top teams and that is a consideration that some people have chosen to overlook. Now we're entering a period against teams we'd like to think we could pick up points against.

"I thought we were excellent. It was important to get the right response having gone into the game on the back of two poor performances and they responded from start to finish."

An error by young defender McEveley, who gave the ball away unnecessarily from a Blackburn free-kick, gifted Liverpool their second goal and cost the home side a potential victory but Hughes was quick to clear his full-back of any blame.

He added: "It is difficult for the lad and a harsh lesson. I'm sure he'll never do that again in his career. But fair play to him, the response I got from him, and the players around him, was exactly what I wanted."