Benitez retains faith in Gerrard

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It has been a traumatic week for Gerrard, who was allegedly involved in an nightclub incident in Southport on Monday morning which has resulted in charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and affray, and he is due to appear at Sefton magistrates court at the end of the month.

Benitez said of the decision to include Gerrard at Deepdale: "He will play, and I have confidence he will be ready. It was a bad situation, but because we know most of the details, maybe not all, we have to support him because we know these things can happen to footballers now because they are very famous."

He added: "In terms of football, everything has been normal for Steven. He has received the support of everyone - the players, myself, the club - and he has trained well and is focused on football.

"I do not believe he will be distracted. He wants to play football and concentrate just on that. He will be thinking about playing well, scoring goals and making sure the club progresses to the next round.

"If we want to help him, the best thing is to train normally and organise things in the same way. And to give him the opportunity to play football.

"He will get that chance at Preston, hopefully by scoring goals he will know how pleased our fans will be. It is the only way to handle things.

"Everybody here has been supporting him. We know what was going on and it is clear it was a special situation, and we have to support him because we trust him.

"He will play, we will select a strong team and we will hope to continue our momentum. Maybe some players will be changed, but Steven will have a very good team on the pitch with him.

"He will not be rotated. He has been playing well and not had too many games so far, he was injured for a while during the season."