Hodgson battles Liverpool medics

Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson admitted on Friday he is fighting a battle of wills against his own medical staff ahead of the club’s Europa League bow.

Liverpool travel to Macedonia on Thursday where they face Rabotnicki in the third qualifying round of Europe’s second-tier competition.

Hodgson has not yet been able to work with all his players because the likes of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Glen Johnson only got back this week after a post-World Cup break.

Hodgson has been advised that those players should not be considered for the trip to Skopje.

“It’s a little bit of a fight with them (the medical team) to some extent, in order to try and get them to free up more senior players,” Hodgson told www.liverpoolfc.tv.

“Their view is very clear that all of these players who are coming back just after the World Cup shouldn’t play in either of the two games.

“My point of view is that I want to go through in the competition and I might need some of these players, so there’s a lot of compromise.

“I fully respect their opinion and in an ideal world I wouldn’t even for one minute discuss it with them and I would take it at face value.”

The return leg against Rabotnicki takes place at Anfield on August 5.