Toure and Allen Should Be Available for Swansea, "Weeks" for Both Cissokho and Johnson

I n many ways the international break came at
an unfortunate time for Liverpool --they'd won
three matches in the course of little more than
a week and four from four in all competitions
to get their 2013-2014 campaign underway,
and the squad clearly had some sort of
momentum (even if it didn't include a ton of
goals) on the heels of the victory over
Manchester United. But it also allowed for
Mamadou Sakho and Tiago Ilori to get settled,
as it would have for Victor Moses had he not
been away for part of it with Nigeria.
And, of course, it provided some needed
recovery time for those injured over the
course of the season's opening few weeks, with
each of Kolo Toure, Joe Allen, Aly Cissokho,
and Glen Johnson spending time with the
training team. In his pre-Swansea press
conference today, Brendan Rodgers provided
updates on their status with a pair set for
Swansea contention and the other two still
some ways off.
Transcripts of the presser will likely filter out
as the day progresses, but what's important to
know for now is that it looks as though Allen is
ready to return to the matchday squad along
with Toure; Rodgers mentioned that both have
been part of regular training, though he did
make special mention of Toure's work with the
physios and sounded slightly less convinced
about the veteran defender's status.
That leaves Cissokho and Johnson, and for both
it's going to be a matter of weeks. We knew as
much for both, so Rodgers' comments merely
confirm most of the information we had for
awhile. Cissokho is "still a few weeks away,"
and with Johnson the club will be monitoring
his recovery "over the course of the next five
weeks." Fullbacks. Liverpool don't need them.
The additions of Ilori and Sakho do provide
depth and apparent flexibility in a number of
roles, however, and Toure's return to the
squad on the heels of Martin Skrtel's standout
performance against United is going to give
Liverpool plenty of competition for spots in
central defense. Fullback depth is and will
forever be a question mark, but heading into
Monday evening's visit to Swansea, the squad
should otherwise be close to full strength.