Melbourne: Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers expects Luis Suarez to remain at the Premier League club for next season but has not ruled out the possibility that the Uruguay striker could be sold for the right price.
Suarez, second top scorer in the Premier League with 23 goals last season, has said he wants to leave Liverpool to play in Spain, blaming the British media for making his life impossible in England.
Despite fevered speculation over his future, the 26-year-old has joined up with his team mates in Australia for Wednesday's pre-season match against Melbourne Victory. "Yeah, very much so," Rodgers told reporters in Melbourne on Monday when asked whether he expected Suarez to stay at Liverpool.
"He's a player that obviously is talked about and there's been a been a lot of speculation over the course of the off-season. But the reality is that he's a player that's very much valued at Liverpool.
"Unless there's any sort of offer that comes in which is anywhere near his value then there's nothing to consider and we haven't had that.
"So at the moment, in this present moment in time, he's back in, he's reported as he should do for training at the right time. He's had a good rest and he's now looking forward to getting fit with the rest of his team."
Asked what kind of offer would tempt the club, Rodgers replied: "I didn't say we would sell him. I said that every player has a value and a worth. Doesn't mean you've got to sell them."
Suarez, who signed from Ajax Amsterdam in January 2011, has offset his brilliance on the pitch with a series of controversial misdemeanours, including a 10-match ban for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic towards the end of last season.
That followed an eight-game suspension the previous season and a storm of criticism for racial abuse.
Suarez arrived in Australia ahead of his team mates, who beat an Indonesian XI 2-0 in Jakarta on Saturday night, after being given time off to recover from the Confederations Cup.
Rodgers said he was in "great spirits" and could feature in Wednesday's match against Victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where a massive crowd of over 90,000 is expected.
The coach had yet to sit down for a mooted chat with Suarez to gauge the striker's thoughts, however.
"I haven't had it yet," Rodgers said. "We only arrived late last night.
"He was obviously here earlier coming from a different part of the world but as we've always been as a club and certainly as a manager and a coach I'm quite relaxed about it.
"Luis was out here as expected. He's an integral part of our squad. We'll chat at some stage like I do with all the players.
"He'll join training today with all the other players and over the course of these next few weeks we'll all communicate but him and I have been in regular communications throughout the summer."
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