Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson has admitted he could be tempted to use some of his star names in Thursday’s Europa League qualifier against FK Rabotnicki (Liverpool 1/6 to win first leg) despite the club’s medical staff advising more rest for the club’s World Cup stars.

The likes of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Glen Johnson (England) Javier Mascherano, Maxi Rodriguez (Argentina), Fernando Torres (Spain) and Dirk Kuyt (Netherlands) are making a slow return to pre-season training after playing for their countries earlier this summer.

Torres and Kuyt have been given extra time off as they were both involved in the World Cup final just over two weeks ago and will not feature on Thursday but Gerrard, Carragher, Johnson and Mascherano, along with Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and new signing Milan Jovanovic, are now all back at the club’s Melwood training ground and Hodgson may be tempted to call upon them this week in his first competitive game in charge (Liverpool 10/1 to win Europa League).

In the Reds’ two pre-season friendlies so far, the former Fulham chief has been forced to pick two extremely inexperienced sides but he admits he will have to bulk his team up with more senior players for the qualifier.

“The sports science people are keen we don’t throw the World Cup people into action, but to throw this team into the Europa League might be a bridge too far for them.”

Alberto Aquilani is expected to be passed fit after recovering from a minor knee injury that kept him out of the 1-0 defeat against Kaiserslautern on Saturday.