Both Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel will not return to training with Liverpool until the day before our next Premier League game against Sunderland as they are involved in a long haul trip to Australia for a … friendly.
Rafa Benitez yesterday admitted he attempted to stop the round the world trip – deeming it wholly unncessary. Kuyt actually went on international duty carrying a slight injury – picked up against Chelsea.
Rafa said:
“We tried to talk with the Dutch Federation about Dirk and Ryan having to travel so far but they have the right to call the players up for these games.
“We know Lucas, Mascherano and Insua will not be back until Friday afternoon and we will have to manage them carefully.
“We tried to find some kind of solution but it was impossible and it is not an ideal situation for them to travel to Australia for a friendly.
Rafa is already sweating on the fitness of Fernando Torres who is with Spain, and an injury concern over Daniel Agger – who despite only having one reserve game under his belt since returning from back surgery has gone on international duty. He was forced to sit out a day of training.
its about time players realised who pays their wages liverpool could be out of the title race by the time utd turn up at anfield
Nothin we can do here. There’s no better thing a man can do 4 his country other than risk his life in battle. All the great club teams suffer because of International duty. The better your team is the more International players you have in it.
Liverpool will just have to deal with it in the same way other great teams do. Sunderland next week is a worry though as they are a team in form not restricted by such problems.
This is where the resilience of a squad is truly tested and I’m sure we will prevail
This is international football over which club managers have little control over.With the world cup around the corner fringe players rightfully want to impress national coaches thus no such matches are meaningless for the like of Babel.