Brendan Rodgers blocks queries over Luis Suarez

Liverpool: Brendan Rodgers fears Luis Suarez’s efforts to force a move from Liverpool could “sabotage” the club’s start to the Premier League season. The Liverpool manager reached tipping point in the Suarez transfer saga on Thursday and announced he will not answer further questions about the errant forward until late September, when the 26-year-old will have served a 10-match suspension for biting Branislav Ivanovic.

Relations between Rodgers and Suarez remain strained after the striker accused the manager of breaking promises over his future and was ordered to train away from the first-team squad as a consequence. They are due to discuss the impasse on Friday when Suarez returns to training from international duty with Uruguay in Japan.

Rodgers wants clarification from Suarez about his intentions following conflicting reports over his desire to stay at Liverpool while away in Japan. Publicly, however, the Liverpool manager claims there is nothing to add to the club’s consistent stance that Suarez is not for sale, and that he cannot allow one disaffected striker to jeopardise the team’s ambition of Champions League qualification this season.

“There’s too much good work gone on here for it to be overtaken by anything else,” said Rodgers before the vow of silence came into force. “The players have worked so hard, their concentration has been brilliant and we are all very determined this year. I can’t let anything detract from that. Nothing can sabotage what we are trying to do. I don’t really want to go on about it. It’s just something we cannot afford to happen.”