Mamadou Sakho has played himself into contention to make his first Premier League appearance of the season at the weekend following his "outstanding" performance as stand-in Liverpool captain in the 1-1 Europa League draw at Bordeaux.
That is the view of boss Brendan Rodgers after the defender produced a solid display as part of a Liverpool side made up of fringe players and youngsters.
"He was certainly outstanding in his performance," said Rodgers, with Norwich City set to visit Anfield on Sunday.
"He knows he's had to be patient and his attitude has been first class. We won our first few games, our performance was good, so it was difficult up until the international break for him to play.
"But he's trained very well and remained very professional, done his extra work on his fitness and you see he has got his rewards for that.
"So he certainly comes into the reckoning for the weekend."
Rodgers made eight changes in all for the Group B clash and was left to rue Jussie cancelling out Adam Lallana's opener.
The Liverpool boss added: "We had so many young players in the team and some of these players were playing their first games, so I thought it was very encouraging.
"Coming away in European games is always tough to do, but with the lack of experience we had and a lot of the young players, I was delighted with that."
Kolo Toure suffered a dead leg, Rodgers has confirmed, after he clattered into goalkeeper Simon Mignolet and was forced off injured.
