Glenn Murray was stetchered off as the first leg of the Championship play-off semi-final between Crystal Palace and Brighton finished 0-0 at Selhurst Park.
The Eagles, who only clung on to a place in the top six with a first win in 10 matches last weekend, managed to cancel out their arch-rivals in the first leg. But they surely face an uphill task when they head down the M23 for Monday's second leg after 30-goal top scorer Murray was stretchered off.
The former Seagulls striker collapsed in agony after appearing to get his studs caught in the turf in the second half, and his play-off campaign looks over.
In contrast to Palace, Brighton came into the game on the back of a nine-match unbeaten run. And it was clear in the first half which team was in form with Brighton opening up a nervous-looking Palace side with their trademark slick passing.
Wayne Bridge skipped past Joel Ward and crossed for Leonardo Ulloa six yards out, but the Argentinian striker headed wastefully wide.
Will Buckley's cross was then met by Dean Hammond in the area and the midfielder crashed a powerful header towards goal, but Julian Speroni made a fine point-blank save.
For Palace, the lively Jonny Williams drove narrowly wide while Murray could have had a penalty when Matt Upson held him in the area, but referee Michael Oliver was unmoved.
Wilfried Zaha was making his final home appearance for Palace ahead of his summer switch to Manchester United.
The winger was rarely allowed to show the talent which persuaded Sir Alex Ferguson to invest ?15million in him, although one shimmy, run and cross deserved better than Williams' tame header.
Zaha found more space after the interval and turned Inigo Calderon inside out, and back again, before fizzing a low ball across goal which Murray just failed to get a touch on.
Then Owen Garvan's cross was met by Danny Gabbidon but his header was kept out by Tomasz Kuszczak, with Andrea Orlandi completing the clearance.
Palace's evening went sour when Murray tried to turn sharply in the box, crumpled to the ground and needed lengthy treatment before leaving the action on a stretcher.
Yet they almost grabbed a late winner from another Garvan cross which Kagisho Dikgacoi tried to bundle home, but Calderon was on hand to hack the ball clear.
The Liverpool goalkeeper has been linked with a move back to his native Spain in the summer but Rodgers insists he won't be sold.
"It's that silly season now that starts up all the rumours and whatnot but Pepe's not for sale," said Rodgers.
"He's got three years left on his contract here, he's happy and obviously there's speculation but it's not worth commenting on."
Reina has been linked with Barcelona - where he began his career - and Real Madrid.
The 30-year-old joined Liverpool in 2005 from Villarreal and has gone on to make nearly 400 appearances for the club.
It was confirmed earlier this week that Rooney submitted a transfer request a fortnight ago, which was subsequently rejected by the Old Trafford outfit.
On Thursday it was noted that Rooney no longer had the words Manchester United on his Twitter page, and instead referred to himself as an "athlete".
This was taken as a sign the 27-year-old sees his future away from the Red Devils despite David Moyes' arrival as manager.
Yet Rooney is adamant the stories are wrong.
On Friday, Rooney released a statement on his website which read: "There's a load of rubbish being written about me changing twitter bio saying I have deleted Manchester United from it.
"I have never deleted Manchester United from the bio whatever the papers are saying because it was never on there.
"All that happened was that I was asked by Nike to add @nikeuk to it - the same as many other sportspeople they sponsor.
"Funny, no one's written about that though!
"That change was made THREE weeks ago and yet people are talking about it as if it's something that was put up yesterday."
