Ever since John Arne Riise announced himself on the Anfield scene with a blockbuster of a free kick against Manchester United in November 2001, Liverpool supporters have serenaded the Norwegian to the tune of the old Bruce Channel hit Hey Baby, altering the lyrics to ask him not whether he will be their girl but how he scored “that goal”.

That goal, though, has been replaced in Liverpudlian minds by the fateful moment on Tuesday night when, in the fifth minute of stoppage time in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea, Riise sent a header past José Manuel Reina in front of an incredulous Kop. In the genre of tragicomic own goals, it was a classic and his humiliation can only have been heightened by the significance of an act that handed Chelsea the initiative in the tie.

Trudging out of Anfield afterwards, his spirits unlikely to have been lifted by being chosen at random to undergo doping tests, he said little. “What can I say?” he said. “I'm devastated.”

He remained so yesterday. His younger brother, Björn Helge, who plays for Lilleström, was quoted in the Norwegian media as saying that he had tried to get in contact with Riise, only to receive a text message saying that he was not in the mood to talk and would not be for some time. Given that he was said to be struggling with fears that he will be sold in the summer, it is not surprising that the 27-year-old's spirits are low.

Riise will need to be pulled out of his melancholy, though, with the likelihood that he will be needed against Chelsea on Wednesday because Fábio Aurélio, whom he replaced as a substitute early in the second half on Tuesday, has a groin injury. “We have got to get John's head right because he will have an important job to play next week,” Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain, said. “John has been here a long time and done great things for this club. As captain, I cannot point any fingers.”

Sports psychologists said that Riise's attempt to head away Salomon Kalou's dipping cross, rather than risk using his weaker right foot, was born out of an instantaneous mental evaluation of his relative strengths.

Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology at Lancaster University, said: “Hindsight is always 20/20 vision and he could have stuck out his foot, but it's an instantaneous thing. It's a very stressful situation, an automatic response. He just would not have time to think.”

Dr Richard Cox, who has the task of building up the confidence of the Scotland rugby union team, said that Riise would need to be carefully managed to get his confidence back. “He can't turn back time,” he said. “But if I was dealing with him I would have him rehearse the moment again, to come to terms with what he wanted to do and how he made the mistake.”