Blackburn Rovers - 2 Liverpool - 2: Sometimes it is the most innocuous moments that carry the greatest significance. Tussling for the ball with Blackburn full back James McEveley, Djibril Cisse fell to the ground. Five minutes later he left the field on a stretcher, his left leg bound and whispers about a gruesome injury sweeping the stands.

The Liverpool physician, Mark Waller, confirmed yesterday that Cisse had suffered a "comminuted fracture of the tibia and fracture of the fibula in his left leg". The striker underwent surgery to have a pin inserted and is unlikely to play again this season.

The final buy of the Gerard Houllier years, Cisse arrived on Merseyside in the summer valued at £14.8 million and with a reputation almost as large. A protégé of Guy Roux, the top scorer in the French league last season and understudy to Thierry Henry at international level, his signing was seen as the closest you could get to a sure thing. Now all bets are off.

The truth is that in 15 games for Liverpool, Cisse had yet to make a real impression. During the time he was on the pitch on Saturday, he continued to resemble a missile uncertain of how to deploy himself. His partnership with Milan Baros showed few signs of a developing an understanding. For Rafael Benitez, whose teams have always played with just one man up front, to have persevered with the pairing over the past few weeks was unusual. It was also indicative of an absence of alternatives.

The Spaniard stayed quiet after the match, claiming not to have seen events. But his pallor spoke of shock all the same. As the Merseysiders enter a crucial period in their season - both at home and abroad - Benitez now has only one first-choice striker: Baros. The Czech had three clear chances in this match, and took the second well, his fourth league goal of the season. He is in no way a target man, however, his instincts being to funnel wide to find space and the ball.

Benitez was always expected to enter the transfer market in January, to supplement a forward line stripped bare by the sale of Michael Owen to Real Madrid. Now the problem has become far more acute. Liverpool finished this match with Harry Kewell leading the line. The Australian was no more convincing there than he has been on the wing of late.

With hard times ahead, Benitez was left ruing his side's inability to take three points from a wide-open game.

John Arne Riise had so much room on the left that he had already sent Baros scurrying clear once before he opened the scoring after seven minutes.

"We started well, scored our goal then reduced the tempo and conceded twice, the second an easy goal", Benitez said. "With the last ball of the first half, you cannot concede a goal."

Liverpool had held their opening lead for 10 minutes before a clever reverse pass from Paul Dickov allowed Brett Emerton to serve up the equaliser for Jay Bothroyd on his full debut. It was Emerton's own strike on half-time that riled Benitez, the Australian scoring as he fell, perhaps in shock at the way Sami Hyypia passed him the ball in the penalty area.

But it is not an absence of finesse that has caused Rovers to sink down the league, and by trying to play their way to victory they could easily have been defeated had Liverpool shown any real killer instinct.

Liverpool travel to Spain to face Deportivo La Coruna on Wednesday night. Defeat would leave them favourites to be knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage. Not a great fixture in which to have to reshape your team, but Benitez must.