The future of Senegal's El-Hadji Diouf at Liverpool suffered another set-back after he was left out of the squad to tour the United States.

Liverpool are heading to the US to play three pre-season friendly matches and will take on Celtic of Scotland, Portuguese side Porto and Italians Roma.

Senegal striker has not been given a squad number for the new campaign by boss Rafael Benitez with new boy Djibril Cisse now wearing the number nine shirt Diouf wore last season.

All the signs seem to point to the fact that the £12m misfit has no future at Liverpool.

It has been a bad week for the former African Footballer of the Year after a Celtic fan announced he was suing the player over a spitting incident in the Uefa cup last year.

He has been a major let down after joining Liverpool from Lens just after the 2002 World Cup and former boss Gerard Houllier recently described Diouf as the biggest disappointment of his time at the club.

Benitez dropped a big hint about Diouf's future earlier this week when he revealed he had only spoken to three players about their futures since arriving.

One, Markus Babbel, has already joined Stuttgart, while full back Gregory Vignal, on loan in Spain last season was another.

The third was Diouf, whose on and off-field behaviour eventually cost him the backing of Houllier.

Benitez named all his star names, including the six players on Euro 2004 duty.