Lampard visits controversial healer in Serbia

The Guardian said the 31-year-old Lampard flew to Belgrade on Thursday to see Serbian doctor Marijana Kovacevic, who has treated several players from leading Premier League clubs.

Kovacevic has received widespread publicity in England for using a controversial treatment involving the use of fluids derived from horse placenta to speed up the healing process.

Liverpool's Albert Riera, Yossi Benayoun, Fabio Aurelio and Glen Johnson have also travelled to Serbia for "special treatment" according to the club website as has Arsenal's injured forward Robin van Persie.

Lampard sufferd his injury on November 12 and Premier League leaders Chelsea said he would likely be missing for three weeks ruling him out of a crunch London derby at Arsenal on November 29.

Standard oils

British media said Lampard had not been undergoing the placenta treatment with Kovacevic, who specialises in muscle injuries, but had utilised standard massage oils.

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said midfielders Riera and Benayoun were due to be out for another two weeks with hamstring problems but he thought they could feature against Manchester City at Anfield at yesterday's early kickoff after the much-publicised journey to eastern Europe. Benitez was so pleased with the treatment he sent defenders Aurelio and Johnson to Serbia as well.

All four players have since returned to Merseyside and have taken part in full training sessions for the past two days.

"You know people have talked about them going to Serbia for special treatment and that's true," Benitez was quoted as saying on the Liverpool website. "We had a lot of reports of international players going there, so we sent some players.

"They are now training so we will see if they can play. They have trained for the last two days. It has been good."