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| Christian Benteke is set to undergo a scan on a hamstring injury |
CHRISTIAN BENTEKE will undergo a scan today on the hamstring injury that threatens his hopes of a reunion with Aston Villa this weekend.
The Belgium striker was substituted at half-time of Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Norwich City and will miss tomorrow’s Capital One Cup tie with League Two Carlisle United.
“Christian is going to have an MRI scan today,” said Liverpool first team coach Gary McAllister. “He’s not going to be ready for tomorrow.”
Liverpool hope the setback for the £32.5million forward, who has scored two goals this season, is not serious, but his absence could hand Danny Ings another opportunity to impress.
Ings scored after replacing Benteke on Sunday and McAllister praised the forward’s work ethic.
“Danny Ings came on and it was really refreshing to see his performance,” added McAllister.
“He has been working his socks off in the training ground and it is not by a fluke that he scored. It is because of his hard work.”
McAllister won the League Cup in 2001 as part of Liverpool’s cup Treble and stressed manager Brendan Rodgers will field a strong line-up as he seeks to garner some momentum after a testing run of results in the Premier League.
But Liverpool’s players have been warned they just need to cope with the pressure that comes with playing for the club.
“A couple of poor results and the heat is on and you are under the microscope, but the players have to thrive on that and cope with that pressure.
“Carlisle are not going to come and roll over. There is going to be a battle that needs to be won.
“They had a really good result at QPR (in the previous round) and are scoring goals in their division, too. It will be tough. The attitude has to be spot on.”
Divock Origi and Jordan Rossiter are likely to be involved.
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