Lucas Leiva Eyes Early April Return

As if losing the League Cup Final to Manchester City wasn't enough bad news, Liverpool discovered that their only defensive midfielder (and make-shift center back) Lucas Leiva would be out for 6 weeks with a muscle injury.

However, the long-time servant of the club has remained positive, as he is wont to do.

"I'm progressing very well. I'm really happy with the way it's going," Lucas said in an interview. "I'm aiming that after the international break I'll be close to coming back and hopefully playing a big part in the last part of the season."

Liverpool's February Player of the Month has been rooting on his teammates from the sidelines, and hoping he can still contribute in a meaningful way over the last month or so of the season.

"[The Manchester United game] was very good - the team is looking really positive and confident. Everything the manager has been asking us in the last few months, we are starting to do every week. Hopefully it will be a good end to the season for us.

"[United] still have a chance, of course. It's a good result for us but we now have to go away and perform again. If we approach it in the same way we did the last game against them, I think we have a big chance to go through. Hopefully, we'll get to the final of this tournament because I think it's a really important one for us."

Good to see the messages of consistency and one-game-at-a-time are finding their way into the physio room. If Lucas is back by early April and Liverpool complete the task of advancing past United, he could be in line for an appearance in the quarterfinal round of the Europa League on April 7th and 14th.