And with Sami Hyypia also angling for a first- team recall, Carragher believes Liverpool are blessed with quality cover at the heart of defence.

“It’s a massive blow – Martin has been a great player for us since he arrived at the club,” he said.

“We didn’t know much about him when he first came to the club, but he’s done very well. He has cemented himself in the Liverpool team quite quickly – which is a very tough thing to do.

“It’s just unfortunate for him that it’s such a bad injury but obviously it gives someone else a chance to get a run in the team.

“That’s why you need a big squad in a long season and credit to the manager as well, he’s seen that we didn’t have enough players in that area of the pitch at times last season and we have Hyypia and Agger who can come in now.”

Carragher added: “We saw Martin on the pitch and realised it wasn’t good, and you don’t really know about these injuries until a day or two afterwards with all the scans.

“He walked onto the coach after the game so we thought it wasn’t too bad then, but it’s still not nice to look at when you see it on the TV.

“He doesn’t need an operation and it’s not as bad as we feared – so hopefully he’ll be back for the games at Christmas.”