my liverpool fc

May 18 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post Pepe Reina PEPE REINA will be fit for the Champions League final next week – with Rafael Benitez again hinting Harry Kewell could also make Liverpool’s starting line-up. Reina has overcome the shoulder injury that ruled him out of the final Premiership game against Charlton Athletic and had threatened his participation against AC Milan on Wednesday. And with Jerzy Dudek also recovered from his groin strain, Benitez will be able to call on his two senior goalkeepers in Athens. Both have been taking full part during the training camp in Spain this week, with Momo Sissoko presently the only slight doubt with a knee problem. Of Reina and Dudek, Benitez said: “They are okay and they will be okay. I’m sure that at the end of the week both Pepe and Jerzy will be fit. “Sissoko has started training now, and we will see. But I think all of them will be okay. There’s only Fabio Aurelio and Luis Garcia injured. The rest of them will be fit.” That number includes Kewell, and Benitez has again suggested the Australian may play from the start following his fine performance as a second-half substitute against Charlton last Sunday. Kewell hasn’t started a game for Liverpool since hobbling off during the FA Cup final win over West Ham United more than a year ago. But the 28-year-old has began every major final for which he has been available under Benitez, and could continue that record. “It depends on the players in the training camp and if the players don’t train well or if some players train really really well, for example Harry Kewell,” said Benitez. “Our idea was maybe to use Harry Kewell for half an hour, but he was brilliant the other day and he’s training really well, fantastic, and we need to consider the options. There’s a lot for me to decide yet but in training we will see.” Kewell’s likely involvement casts a doubt over whether Mark Gonzalez will even make the bench in Athens. The Chile international set Liverpool on the road to the final back in August when he netted the late winner in the 2-1 qualifying round first leg win over Maccabi Haifa, scoring within minutes of coming on as substitute for his debut. But Gonzalez, who arrived last summer after a much-delayed transfer from Albacete, has since struggled to come to terms with life in the Premiership, scoring And with Real Betis among several Spanish clubs tracking the 22-year-old, Benitez is considering whether to give Gonzalez another chance to impress or allow the left winger to depart in the summer. Gonzalez said: “This is football and if I have to go somewhere else then I will have to deal with that. “I would like to stay at Liverpool. But it has not been the best year for me and I know I can do more.”

Labels: pepe reina