• League Cup

Lucas reveals Gerrard text message motivation

Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva will be spurred on by a promise from captain Steven Gerrard when the club meet Chelsea in the League Cup on Tuesday night.

Lucas ruptured a cruciate ligament in the 2-0 quarter-final win during the same competition at Stamford Bridge back in November 2011 and subsequently missed the chance to appear in the 2012 final as Kenny Dalglish's men beat Cardiff to claim the trophy.

Lucas: I could leave Liverpool

• Lucas Leiva has admitted he is unsettled at Liverpool and could leave the club in the January transfer window.
• The midfielder's former manager on Merseyside, Rafael Benitez, reportedly tried to sign him for Napoli in the summer, and Lucas is also intrigued by the prospect of a move to Inter Milan.
• "We all know the relationship I have with Rafa - I don't need to explain that. If it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't be here," said Lucas, whom Benitez brought to Liverpool from Gremio in 2007.
• "There are always rumours in the transfer window and it will be like that until February 2. I just have to focus on what I can control.
• "I would be lying if I said I never thought about something new, but I can't tell you what is going to happen because it is football and we really don't know.
• "I wasn't involved much at the beginning of the season and probably didn't think I was going to be. There were many games when I couldn't even make the bench.
• "I just had to keep going, keep patient. I knew some opportunities would come and I just had to enjoy them.
• "But after so many years here I am not trying to convince anyone any more. I just have to enjoy and leave the future. That will decide itself."

The Brazilian may have missed the showpiece event, but was given a winner's medal at Liverpool's Melwood training ground after the game - his only one in almost eight years at Anfield - yet it was a text message from Gerrard after his injury that he will be looking back on as he prepares to face Chelsea again.

"It was hard for me and I was a little bit down because I wanted to be part of things on the pitch but I remember, when we were on our way to the stadium, Stevie sent me a text which said: 'Don't worry, we will get here again,'" he said. "It is something that I always remember, something nice, and hopefully we will make that come true.

"I might not have played the final but my first medal for the club is important, I always look at it. Other players may have won more but that first one was very important to me. I played until the quarterfinal and I felt I deserved it because football is a team sport. That is the way I think."

The innocuous challenge with Ryan Bertrand saw Lucas out for nine months, while he was overlooked by Brazil for almost two years and missed the chance to play in the 2014 World Cup on home soil because he had been out of the picture for so long.

However, the 28-year-old thinks he has now recovered fully and is back to his best.

"I had a few problems after the injury and it is probably now that I am feeling my best in terms of sharpness and the way I want to play," he said.

"The issues were about confidence and sharpness, confidence with myself really. With the way I play the injury was probably on my mind. I didn't think about it when I made a tackle but, automatically when you have had an injury like that, maybe you don't go as hard as you can.

"Now I feel like myself again and how I felt before the injury, which was probably my best moment for the club. I felt very well in the last 15 games I've played and it is a question of keeping going. Hopefully we can have another good win at Chelsea like when I got the injury, but without the injury this time. I am looking forward to it."

Lucas Leiva's Liverpool head to Stamford Bridge tonight for the second leg of their League Cup semi-final © Getty Images

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