Lucas set for injury return

Brendan Rodgers intends to use the midfielder - who hasn't featured since sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his knee last November - over the next 10 days as the Reds prepare for 2012-13 with friendlies against Toronto, Roma and Tottenham.

The manager told lfctour.com: "He'll have some involvement. He's still got some way to go to get back to where he was before the injury but he's back two months early.

"This is normally a nine-month injury. He's been back in seven, and that's great credit to his work and the work of the medics here.

"He's done very, very well and is working very hard. We can feed him into some of the games and increase his mental capacity to improve, because obviously it was a serious injury.

"He's a great guy, he loves his football, loves this club, and he's making great progress."

On whether Lucas could feature against MLS side Toronto in Canada on Saturday, Rodgers added: "We shall see. The maximum any player will play on Saturday is 45 minutes."

A total of 34 players will participate in the tour, with double training sessions the norm at the team's Harvard base in Boston.

So what is the manager looking for from individuals as they try to force their way into his plans for next season?

"It's the application, the desire to want to be in the side," he said. "There is a long way to go yet and we've got a big part of our preparation left, but the early stages have boded well for a number of players, because they've shown real appetite and a thirst to learn.

"They're a really unified group and the young players are really trying to impress and show they can be in and around the first team.

"It's also a credit to the senior players. Jamie Carragher, 34 years of age, has led by example. He's still putting the miles in on the field and being a great example off it. Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger - all of them have been fantastic."

Though fitness is the primary concern for Rodgers and his backroom team at this stage of pre-season, tactical messages are also being drilled into the players.

"That won't kick in, really, until later on when the group is together," Rodgers said. "But in terms of a lot of the pressing work we've done, they've showed up really well.

"We've talked about possession and the importance of possession and I've seen great improvements in that in a couple of weeks.

"Their understanding and management of the game will improve as time goes on, but the most important thing (right now) is the physical condition and that's looking very good."