BOSS PLANNING UNITED RETURN FOR STEVIE

Rafael Benitez is confident Steven Gerrard will be fit to return to the Liverpool midfield when Manchester United visit Anfield next month.

The Reds skipper underwent a minor groin operation yesterday, ruling him out of this weekend's clash with Aston Villa and England's double-header with Andorra and Croatia next week. But Benitez is hopeful the club's prompt decision to sort the problem out will be rewarded with Gerrard returning to full fitness in time to take on United on September 13. "Stevie couldn't play at the same level as normal," said Benitez. "We needed to be quick and do the operation as soon as possible. The operations are small and simple, they're not serious. "It will be more or less 15 days out, but maybe as we've done the operations quickly it could be less. "If we'd delayed it, then he might have been out for even longer. You can't keep an injured player playing games. We needed to do the operation now. Steven couldn't play and was struggling with the problem he had and was always in pain. "We spoke to him on Wednesday and said we knew his situation. We knew he needed the operation, so asked him not to think about the pain as it would all be sorted. "He was happy as we gave him a solution, he knew that he could play and could then have the operation. It was impossible to delay the operation any longer."