RAFA BENITEZ today admitted Djibril Cisse's latest horrific injury will impact on his summer spending plans.
The Liverpool manager was banking on raising as much as £8m from the sale of Cisse to Marseille or Lyon, with talks reaching an advanced stage just hours before the striker suffered a broken leg in France's last warm-up game.
Cisse suffered a break of the tibia and fibula, ruling him out until at least Christmas, and ending the possibility of an imminent sale.
While Benitez has sympathy for the 25-year-old, from a business perspective the injury has serious repercussions.
Hopes of raising capital to launch bids for certain targets depended on the early sale of players such as Cisse.
Now Benitez must re-assess his options, and may even have to re-consider the futures of other saleable assets to ensure he's not frustrated with his summer re-building plans.
"There are two issues here," said Benitez.
"Firstly, from the players point of view I'm really sorry for Djibril. That's important. It's really unfortunate for him. But it's true it's now impossible for him to be sold.
"We were expecting to sell him to Marseille or Lyon and planned using the money for other players. We were talking to both clubs. Now we won't have this money. We won't expect him to play again until November or December."
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