Top scorer Fernando Torres, talismanic captain Steven Gerrard and Yossi Benayoun, arguably the club's best outfield player this term, all learned this afternoon they face lay-offs after undergoing scans.

The trio were all injured in the humiliating FA Cup loss to Championship strugglers Reading which piled on the pressure for Benitez last night.

The injury to Torres is the biggest blow with the Spain striker requiring surgery on a torn knee cartilage that will rule him out for six weeks.

Gerrard is expected to be missing for a fortnight with a torn hamstring while Benayoun will be absent for up to four weeks with a fractured rib.

The loss of players he has been regularly been criticised for relying too heavily on is the last thing Benitez needed in the aftermath of another embarrassing result.

The 2-1 third-round replay reverse at Anfield yesterday was the latest upset in a season that has seen the so-called title challengers fall out of Premier League contention and exit the Champions League early.

Currently seventh in the Premier League, they are facing a tough battle to retain a top-four place, and their elimination from both cups leaves them with just the Europa League to otherwise occupy them.

With impressive summer signing Glen Johnson also out until the middle of next month, Benitez has a tough task to rouse his side for the games ahead.

Liverpool face Stoke, Tottenham and Wolves before the first of the missing key players, Gerrard, can return.

If Benayoun is out for three weeks, he will also miss the game against Bolton on January 30 and possibly the following week's Merseyside derby with Everton.

Torres will not feature in any of those games or further Premier League matches against Arsenal and Manchester City and the two-legged Europa League clash with Romanian team Unirea Urziceni.

Despite the gloom and growing calls for him to leave, Benitez remains defiant and believes he can turn the situation around.

The Spaniard said: "A lot of people are talking about me, but I have to look forward and keep working hard.

"All I can do is to try to do my best every day, every match. That is all anyone can do.

"Right from the beginning of the season there have been problems, (privately) we feared it could be like that.

"But the only option is to carry on, to do your best to change things around.

"In any race you have to try to move forward as quickly as possible.

"I accept that the season has become bad, certainly not the best. There have been too many bad moments.

"We can only carry on and be ready for the next game. All we can say is that we must focus on the next challenge."

Benitez complained after the Reading defeat of "things that happened I did not like" but declined to criticise referee Phil Dowd, who gave Reading a debatable penalty in injury time which forced the match into extra time.

But the former Valencia boss was believed to have been upset by some of the physical challenges aimed at Torres, Gerrard and Benayoun.

Torres was flattened in the first few seconds by Matthew Mills, in what could have been an early booking but Dowd only warned the player.

Mills was eventually booked for the 44th-minute foul on Benayoun that left the Israeli nursing his broken rib.

Torres never recovered from Mills' challenge and limped away after 29 minutes, while Gerrard was caught early on by a bad challenge from Gylfi Sigurdsson and did not return for the second half.

Benitez said: "We cannot change the result, we must move forward. We have to think only about the future.

"We do not rely on Gerrard and Torres too much, they are very important for us, but we have other players who can perform, score goals and win matches for us.

"We know we can improve. Sometimes we just do not play to our level, but sometimes we do. We just have to keep working, keep trying to get things right."