Agger dropped out of the Denmark squad after aggravating a back injury against Birmingham, while Johnson missed England’s clash with Brazil after damaging his calf.

Meanwhile, Benitez has revealed he would quit the club if he was ever forced to sell Torres to ease Liverpool’s debt.

“I’m confident it will never happen. If it did, I’d resign,” he insisted.

The Liverpool manager has also defended his record in the transfer market, saying: “When we have spent big, normally it’s been very good business.

“Torres, Mascherano, Reina, Alonso. Keane is a good player but we had to sell him because he was not playing at the level we knew he could play. Ryan (Babel) was signed for the future and we are waiting for his improvement. He has to be more consistent.

“With the fringe players, we needed to take a gamble on Bosmans and one, two million-pound players.

“Some of these players have not been good enough for us. It is a risk you have to accept when there is not too much money about.

“We can only buy one or two big, £20 million players a year.

“If we want to have money available, then we have to sell some players. We have to sell expensive and buy as cheaply as possible.”

Liverpool will begin their FA Youth Cup campaign at home to Wolves. The tie has to be played by December 12.