comments link disappears – help?

i’m using a theme called minima plus 1.0, based on a standard blogger theme. the original layout placed this line BELOW the post:

28.05.06 | 1 Comment | edit

now i moved this to above the content, just below the title. all is fine when viewing as a category, or on the front page, but when viewing as a single post, this happens:

28.05.06 | | edit

i’ve edited the code slightly (commented out the $single mainly) so it now looks like this:

<?php // if ($single) { ?>
<p class="post-footer">
<em><?php the_time('d.m.y',display); ?></em>
| <a class="comment-link" href="<?php the_permalink() ?>#comments"><em><?php comments_only_popup_link(__('0 Comments'), __('1 Comment'), __('% Comments')); ?></em></a>
<?php edit_post_link("edit", " | <em>", "</em>"); ?>
<?php // } ?>

and, as i said, i’ve moved it from below the_content() to above it but below the_title().

can anyone suggest why the comments link disappears on a single post page? much obliged.