Is the international break over yet?

Apologies for the radio silence, but after about a week, I’m always sick of the international break and completely ready for the Premiership to restart. I try to fill my brain with England instead of Liverpool, but I’m not an England blogger by any stretch of the imagination.

However, I may end up paying $20 for the “privilege” of watching England against Russia tomorrow, so fair warning.

To compensate, here’s some links about what’s going on with Liverpool players:

- Carra’s back in training.

- As is Aurelio, who participated in a reserve game against Crewe today (along with Alonso, Pennant, Arbeloa, Benayoun, Sissoko, Lucas and new boys Damien Plessis and Dani Pacheco, among others).

- And maybe even Kewell (what, is there a final coming up soon?), although this article reckoned he’d play against Crewe, which he did not.

- But now Finnan looks likely to miss more than just the internationals.

- In the “things I did not know" category, Gerrard attributes his excellent partnership with Gareth Barry to their close friendship.

- And while I’m quite late posting this, Jonathan sent in a link from the Liverpool Echo about how every single Liverpool player, as well as Rafa Benitez, is for sale.

Where are all the Liverpool players playing this week?
Gerrard, Crouch, Carson – Gerrard is the only one likely to start against Russia (although predicting McClaren has become nigh on impossible), but I assume we’ll see Crouch as a sub.
Alonso, Reina, Torres – Spain hosts Latvia in a must-win game. Alonso is suspended after his red card on Saturday and is back on Merseyside, Torres will probably start despite coming off after 57 minutes on Saturday, and Reina will back up Iker Casillas.
Babel, Kuyt – Holland is at Albania in a Group G qualifier. Babel started on Saturday, but Kuyt was dropped in place of van Nistelrooy.
Voronin – Ukraine hosts Italy in a match they’ll need to win to get qualification back on track.
Hyypia – 2nd place Finland hosts 1st place Poland in Group A qualifying.
Riise – Norway hosts Greece in another 2nd v 1st matchup (Greece is two points ahead with a game in hand).
Agger – Denmark should canter over Lichtenstein in Group F qualifying.
Mascherano – Mascherano’s Argentina played a friendly in Australia early this morning and won 1-0. I’m absolutely thrilled he flew halfway around the world for that; I’ll be surprised if he’s involved against Portsmouth.