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Rodgers relishing Suarez's Liverpool return

Olympic dream over: Luis Suarez is on his way back to Liverpool © PA Photos

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Uruguay's loss is Liverpool's gain, with manager Brendan Rodgers relishing the prospect of working with Luis Suarez.

Suarez's Uruguay crashed out of the Olympics following a 1-0 loss to Great Britain, after which Suarez hit out at the conduct of GB fans.

The controversy surrounding Suarez's comments may well rumble on into the new Premier League season, but Rodgers is keen for the forward to put it behind him and focus on Liverpool.

"It will be fantastic to have Luis coming back, and he is already fighting fit. He will have a couple of days off and join up with us after the weekend," Rodgers said. "He's been playing games, so he will already be up to a decent level of fitness - maybe even higher than the rest of the squad, because he's had more competitive games.

"I'm really looking forward to working with him."

Upon Suarez's return to Anfield, Rodgers will impress upon the former Ajax striker to put the taunts and last season's troubles - he was suspended for a breach of rules regarding racist comments - behind him.

"The first point is that opposition fans only give people stick because they're good players - you don't see bad ones getting the stick from the fans," Rodgers said.

"Luis probably still feels a little bit of injustice about last season, but for me now the message is that we have to move on. We have to move forward.

"What's happened has happened. Let's let it go now, however hard it is.

"We want to be winning games and doing our best for the football club.

"No matter how hard it is, the message has to be that we must agree to move on and move forward."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.