Gerrard driven by the ultimate dream

Euro 2004 qualifiers: Disappointment of World Cup absence has given Liverpool's powerhouse a fresh incentive

It will long remain one of the great what ifs provoked in 2002; to many, you suspect, as crucial to the national interest as speculating what if the John Major and Edwina Currie liaison had been revealed when it occured?

The question that will continue to cause intense debate is just what might have happened if even a less-than-fit Steven Gerrard had been able to inflict his particular strain of influence on a flagging England as heat and fatigue told against Brazil in that World Cup quarter-final in Shizuoka, Japan, last June?

"It was frustrating," Gerrard concedes when asked how it had felt to watch developments in Japan from afar. "We did miss a little bit of that drive, someone out there to get a grip and push the lads on. People say to me 'If you had been out there it might have been different', but I don't know that it's true because I might have been tired as well, I might have had nothing left in my locker. It's impossible to say."

The Liverpool midfielder was forced to endure England's elimination on a TV screen, as he recuperated from an operation which has seemingly brought about a successful conclusion to the Saga of Gerrard's Groin. "I went on holiday just to try to get the World Cup out of my head," he says. "But the games were on TV and I couldn't miss them. Watching them was difficult because I had been so desperate to be there."

At only 22, the fiercely competitive midfielder equipped with a superior sonar system for detecting the runs of his own team-mates and who is capable of dispatching such accurate raking passes to them, he has at least two more World Cups ahead, it is blithely suggested. But considering his fitness record how can he be certain of that? He has spent too long on the physiotherapist's couch to make any assumptions.

His appearance in the squad, fully sound, for the current double-header of European Championship qualifiers against Slovakia and Macedonia, has undoubtedly induced silent prayers from Sven Goran Eriksson who should be hoarse by now from chanting Gerrard's praises. The England coach believes Gerrard has "everything to become one of the biggest midfielders because he can compete, he can do everything, even scoring. Put him out wide and his crossing is maybe not Beckham, but it is very close. He can be a play-maker, he can be a sitting midfielder".

As for the player himself, missing the summer banquet has only increased his appetite for the next tournament in Portugal in two years' time. He is already seated at the table, knife and fork poised. Twelve caps, including yesterday's against Slovakia, is hardly an appropriate return for a player of his multi-skills.

Though Gerrard is not by nature a braggard, he possesses an admirable self-assurance which steels him for the tasks ahead. "Obviously you've got to be confident about your own ability and I feel when I'm on top form I can add something to this England squad," he says. It is evident that 2006 is his ultimate target. "I'm determined to make up for what I missed out on in this last World Cup," he says. "I've dreamed of playing in it since I was a kid. I was steaming to play in Japan, I was desperate to play out there. But towards the end of the season I just knew that my groin problem wouldn't let me do it."

Now fully recovered from his surgery, Gerrard adds: "I want to get back to playing full games [for England]. I owe it to myself and I owe it to the people I let down, Sven and my team-mates."

Surely, he is asked, he should not reproach himself for his absence? "The players wanted me to go, Mr Eriksson said that he was desperate for me to go, I wanted to go, my family wanted me to go, so all kind of thoughts went through my head," he recalls. "Should I say, 'yes, I'm fit' and try to get through it? But I didn't really feel I could get through the training, never mind the games."

However, he adds: "In one sense I feel as if I let them down by not going, but I also felt that I made the right professional decision because it gave someone else the chance to do better than I could have done myself. I thought that Nicky Butt, who played where I might have done, had a fantastic World Cup."

Gerrard has a habit of not exactly beating himself up, but certainly taking himself to task. He is honest enough to confess, for instance, that Sunday's 1-0 win against Chelsea was far from his optimum standard. "I'm my own worst critic – together with my dad. He had a word with me on Sunday night and told me what I knew really, that I wasn't good enough. I gave too many balls away."

It has been said before that Gerrard is occasionally over-ambitious with his distribution. "That was exactly what was happening on Sunday," he admits. "I was trying too hard to make something happen, trying too hard to get Michael [Owen] through, instead of being patient. Maybe I was playing a little bit for myself instead of the team. Maybe I'm trying too hard to impress."

Mention of Owen brings to mind the fact that he and the England striker are connected, seemingly, by an umbilical cord. The pair began their highly rewarding years at Anfield together, and their affinity is a vital factor for both Liverpool and England.

Gerrard was instrumental in Owen discovering fertile scoring land once again after an arid period. "We all knew Michael just needed a goal and I was trying extra special to set him up," he says. "In the end I did, I got in two assists. As a team-mate, you've got to try to help him out and try to give him a bit more service. But I know Michael so well, and I knew he'd come through it. Hopefuly, it's all behind him now."

The same applies to Gerrard who forsook World Cup participation for the benefit of his long-term future. It is to be hoped that the surgeon's knife made the kindest cut of all.