ANGRY Liverpool have hit out at an “absolutely disgraceful” England set-up after Steven Gerrard was left facing a spell on the sidelines.

Gerrard will undergo a scan today after hobbling off with a hamstring injury towards the end of his country’s 2-1 friendly defeat against France at Wembley last night.

The Liverpool skipper slid in for a challenge with France midfielder Yoann Gourcuff with six minutes remaining and immediately pulled up before being replaced.

It prompted a furious reaction from Darren Burgess, Liverpool’s head of fitness and conditioning, who used his Twitter account to spark another club versus country row by revealing Fabio Capello had ignored a request for Gerrard to be substituted earlier in the match.

“Unbelievable from all associated with England and English FA with regards to SG’s injury,” said Burgess. “Completely ignored agreement and past history.

“Completely amateurish and now we pay for their incompetence. Absolutely disgraceful.”

Burgess later removed the comments from his Twitter account but they had already spread across the social networking site and it is clear Liverpool are deeply unhappy with England’s conduct.

Capello, however, insisted he played Gerrard for longer than the hour because Gareth Barry had an ankle problem and Rio Ferdinand had picked up a muscle problem.