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Overnight the people of Uruguay became experts in the intricacies of repairing meniscus tears.

A panicked and worried nation held its breath as Luis Suarez hobbled out of training and straight onto the treatment table to repair his damaged knee.

Their World Cup fate was placed in the skilled hands of Dr Enzo Francescoli and the eyes of a football-mad country were fixed on a Montevideo hospital.

Suarez’s minor operation, said to have lasted only 20 minutes, appears to have been a success and though he was wheeled out of surgery he is confident of being fit for the tournament next month.

For a while, however, his homeland had been whipped into a mild form of hysteria as they feared his World Cup KO and had the diagnosis been worse then Uruguay could well have gone into complete meltdown.

Suarez is loved and revered by those on the Kop but it appears even that level of adoration is dwarfed by the fervent worship he receives back home.

Swarmed by camera crews and journalists as he travelled home, Uruguay’s all-time leading scorer had to issue a plea for calm – he really is King Luis in Uruguay.

Liverpool FC fans were of course concerned to see their star striker having to undergo keyhole surgery but they were far more relaxed about the situation and the club were always confident Suarez was in good hands.

But that the 27-year-old had to go under the knife should come as a sobering and timely reminder to Reds supporters.

Brendan Rodgers’ brilliant side of last season were frighteningly lethal going forward.

Liverpool plundered 101 Premier League goals and played with a thrilling, breathtaking abandon that had not been seen in decades.

But it is probably unfair to expect 31-goal Suarez and Co. to repeat such a monumental effort again next season on their own.

Suarez and Daniel Sturridge were the best strike partnership in the league last season, Raheem Sterling came of age, captain Steven Gerrard scored vital goals at vital times and Martin Skrtel scored more times in the league than Fernando Torres.

But the landscape has changed.

Liverpool will not be allowed to steamroller teams as easily as they did and Chelsea showed that there can be a way to blunt their attack.

The demands on the talismanic Suarez to find the answers from his box of tricks will be even greater and with Champions League back on the agenda, he will be asked to do it more often and in higher stakes games.

Add into the fact that he will have spent a chunk of his summer carrying the weight of a nation’s hopes on his shoulders in Brazil and the need to share the burden back on Merseyside becomes even more pronounced.

Liverpool coped well without him as he served his 10-game ban but his return took the team to a completely different level.

Sterling will only get better next term, of course, Jordan Ibe’s emergence will add another dimension to their wide options and Philippe Coutinho will be expected to chip in with more

than his five goals from last season.

Rodgers is eager to give Fabio Borini’s Liverpool career a second chance and the Italian, after an encouraging spell at Sunderland, looks to have rediscovered his confidence.

But the Reds will need more than that if they are to fight on all fronts from August.

Prime target Adam Lallana is sure to add creativity and guile in the final third but when those balls come into the box Rodgers needs to know he has the players to find the back of the net.

Misfit Iago Aspas looks like his days at Anfield are numbered and it has come as little surprise to see the rumour mill churn out a link with Loic Remy this week.

Liverpool will be linked with a ton of other strikers before the transfer window slams shut for sure but for once the idle speculation makes a degree of sense.

Hopefully Suarez comes sailing through the World Cup with barely a scratch and he has proven he can take his lumps.

Rodgers has labelled him as a “warrior” but there is little doubt he will be willing to play through the pain barrier to feature for Uruguay next month and so will need the right amount of rest and recuperation after the World

Cup.

Liverpool’s hopes at home and abroad next season cannot rest on a jaded Luis Suarez in need of rest.

Others must be brought in to pick up the slack.

Bellamy should be given his dues

The curtain came down on the career of former Red Craig Bellamy this week.

After over 450 league appearances in England, Scotland and Wales the 34-year-old has called it quits.

To put it mildly, Bellamy is a love-hate character in football.

But after two spells at Liverpool, the Welshman certainly falls into the former category.

Bellamy played 79 times and scored 18 goals for the club and will not go down in Anfield folklore as a Reds legend.

But for sure, he will always receive a warm welcome if he ever chooses to return.

Fans will reflect on him scoring on a memorable night in the Nou Camp during his first spell and then sending Liverpool back to Wembley on a raucous Anfield night when he returned under Kenny Dalglish.

Oh, and he may also be remembered for an incident involving John Arne Riise and a golf club.

Cup final gives Reds a chance to dream

For the first time in many years Liverpool fans can watch the Champions League final without having that churning feeling in their stomach.

Lisbon plays host to the battle of Madrid tonight as Real and Atletico clash in the 2014 showpiece and instead of green-eyed envy, Reds can sit in front of the television and dream.

The reward for Liverpool’s excellence under Brendan Rodgers will not truly be felt until that very first Champions League night under the lights at Anfield.

But with their place in the group stage of next season’s competition secured the theme tune will rarely have sounded so good.

Sky Sports’ polished broadcast will provide essential opinion and analysis but ITV, with special guest Steven Gerrard in the studio, may just be the channel of choice for Reds tonight.

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