Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers delivered a positive update on the fitness of defender Daniel Agger at his pre-Sunderland press conference at Melwood on Friday.

The Denmark international missed the Reds' 1-0 Capital One Cup defeat at Manchester United in midweek after completing almost an hour against Southampton last weekend.

Asked for an injury update, the manager told reporters: "We are what we are from the other night.

"Daniel Agger will hopefully come back into the reckoning; he has trained in the last couple of days. Other than that, it will be more or less the same squad.

"I can only work with the players that I have available. We have got a few injuries and most of them have been unfortunate injuries.

"I can only concentrate on the players we have available now and we'll maximise what we can out of that group. They are working very hard and working well."

Joe Allen will not be involved, however, with the Welshman requiring further recovery time from a hamstring complaint before he becomes available again.

"We felt leading up to the Swansea game that Joe's hamstring was getting better," said Rodgers.

"But he still has a bit of time to go on that. He's obviously working hard with the medical team but he's not fit yet."

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The boss was questioned on the fitness of top scorer Daniel Sturridge too, and quickly quashed any suggestions that the striker could be rested following the return of Luis Suarez.

"There's no taking him out. With Daniel, we've seen this season that even when he's not 100 per cent fit he's still an amazing player," the Northern Irishman added.

"He's still a player that will put defenders on the back foot. His pace and power is getting up to speed.

"He's a player that is very important for our team. He's a catalyst at the top end and even when he's not at 100 per cent he's still a top player."

Suarez played the whole match at Old Trafford on Wednesday and Rodgers provided two pieces of good news on behalf of the Uruguayan.

He said: "He's fine. He became a father for the second time yesterday so he's on top of the world."