BLACKBURN Rovers face an anxious wait on the fitness of Craig Short for this Saturday's Premiership clash with Leeds United.

The central defender limped off with a calf injury at half-time during the 4-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday and will now have a scan to assess the extent of the damage.

But Short is still hopeful of returning to the side for the crunch relegation battle, with Rovers now hovering just three points clear of both Leeds and Leicester following United's 3-2 win at Elland Road last night.

"I did something to the calf but not too sure what," said Short. "I jumped for a ball after 20 minutes and it got worse and worse so there was no way I could have carried on.

"It didn't feel too clever yesterday but any bleeding wouldn't show up until a couple of days after so it's case of waiting until Wednesday for the scan.

"It's something I've been used to over the past few years but I hope it's just a small tear."

Rovers are still sifting through the debris of Sunday's destruction at Anfield, which was their heaviest Premiership defeat of the season.

But Short declared that the players have dismissed the four-goal humbling as a one-off and are ready and raring to fight to the finish.

"We've had a chat and we're all prepared for a big scrap," said Short. "If we're not then we go down.

"The manager said that Sunday and the Birmingham game in the FA Cup are the only times we've been all over the place. We were poor but we're looking at it as just one of those bad days.

"We knew it was important to start well and be as solid as we have in away games this season, but they were 3-0 up in 25 minutes and we'd already shot ourselves in the foot.

"The had nine or 10 playing to their optimum and nine or 10 of ours didn't. We weren't aggressive enough and didn't impose ourselves on the game."

Manager Graeme Souness managed to take a crumb of comfort from the second half at Anfield, when Rovers restricted Liverpool to one goal and Steven Reid continued his comeback with a full 45 minutes.

Souness said: "We find ourselves in a very precarious position and losing by four goals doesn't help our cause in terms of goal difference, in terms of points or in terms of confidence for the next game.

"But we have to re-group and try to take positives out of it. "