Rafael Benitez's single-minded attitude to Steven Gerrard's fitness underlines just how important it is to the manager that Liverpool maintain their title challenge from first match to last.

The Anfield boss will ''push'' his captain to play against Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday, despite scans showing he has a hairline fracture of the big toe on his right foot.

Manager, player and medical staff have conferred - and the upshot is that Gerrard will play against the former champions and then rest during international week.

England manager Steve McClaren's problems for the midweek friendly against Germany are clearly not top of Benitez's list - even if he is about to deny England the player who would have captained the side in John Terry's absence.

Benitez will use Gerrard, who picked up the injury against Toulouse in the Reds' 1-0 Champions League qualifying round first-leg win, and leave McClaren with no choice but to accept the player will not be fit to face the Germans.

McClaren could pick a squad, force Gerrard to travel to the England team HQ for medical tests yet still find that he could not be risked.

Such is Gerrard's importance to Benitez, he is almost certainly now going to face Chelsea after being given a pain-killing injection.

Benitez, who has had to overcome Peter Crouch's problems with team rotation this week, has made it clear Gerrard's presence is worth the ''little risk''.

''We have confidence he will be available for the weekend; then he must rest. We must manage the risk, and he will play against Chelsea,'' the Reds boss said.

''But if he trains and plays more games after that it will be a bigger risk. We know you cannot push a player too much; for one game it is okay - for more it is a risk."