Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers has suggested that he currently does not know when James Maddison will come back into contention for selection.
Having contributed seven goals and four assists from 13 starts in the Premier League, Maddison earned a spot in England's squad for the World Cup.
However, in the final Foxes game before the tournament in Qatar, Maddison needed to be withdrawn with a knee issue, one which threatened his participation for the Three Lions.
Although the 26-year-old remained in Gareth Southgate's 26-player group, Maddison was ruled out of the opening two games and stayed as an unused substitute in the other three encounters.
Despite his lack of game time, Maddison has also missed out on Leicester's first two fixtures since the resumption, an EFL Cup tie with MK Dons and a Premier League encounter with Newcastle United.
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After the Boxing Day defeat versus the latter, Rodgers appeared to be unsure over when Maddison would return, and those quotes have been backed up at a press conference on Wednesday ahead of the meeting with Liverpool later in the week.
As well as confirming that Maddison would remain absent for the trip to Anfield, Rodgers revealed that his star man had been to see a knee specialist.
Speaking to reporters, as quoted by BBC Sport, Rodgers said: "[Maddison] won't be available for the game. He was with Mark [Waller], our doctor, getting some special advice in London today so I'll wait to hear from them later on.
"He hasn't trained with the squad. He was clearly getting treatment out [in Qatar] and he and the medical team deemed him OK to train.
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"He was available for games [for England]. He's come back here, looked to do some work, and then felt a pain in a different part of his knee."
Leicester are currently preparing for a hectic run of fixtures, the encounter with Liverpool the first of five games to be played up to and including January 14.
While Maddison may have been rested for the FA Cup tie at Gillingham, he would have been one of the first names on the teamsheets for games versus Liverpool, Fulham, Newcastle in the EFL Cup and Nottingham Forest.
The development comes at a time when Maddison has just over 18 months remaining on his contract at the King Power Stadium and has been attracting interest from elsewhere.
Darren Plant
