Certainly, it’s a situation Liverpool just haven’t had to deal with in this campaign: they must start a game without Jordan Henderson.

Remarkably, that hasn’t happened in the entirety of 2013-14. The 23-year-old has started every single league match.

Even more remarkably, it is the sort of absence that would have felt almost irrelevant a year ago. Now, it is of huge significance.

He has played a literal central part in this sensational surge to the top of the table. In that, Henderson almost personifies Liverpool’s tremendous transformation. Previously a player of definite talent but who failed to convince, he is now performing at a supreme level far beyond what most imagined possible.

As such, it is a somewhat unfortunate quirk of fate he chose this crucial juncture to make that rare rash challenge against Manchester City and get himself suspended.

It could also be genuinely damaging.

While Henderson is far from the most important player in the team, he does play a hugely important role.

In a fluid front six where no one could be said to have anything like a fixed position, he does probably have the most defined role alongside Steven Gerrard.

The pairing is pointed. Henderson’s energy provides a dynamism that had been missing in the team since Gerrard naturally had to drop back due to age, but also specifically allows the club captain to dictate pace and play from a more anchored position.

The stats of his season tell much of the story. Of Liverpool’s most used players, Henderson hits more passes per game (56.7) than everyone except Gerrard, has the third highest number of assists with seven, and makes more tackles than all but four other individuals in the team. He has clearly assumed an all-action role. In short, his industry and running link Liverpool’s steadier base with that stunning attack, greatly facilitating all that fluidity.

That was never more evident than in the 5-0 victory away to Tottenham Hotspur in December, which was effectively the side’s first truly ‘statement’ win of the season. From early in the game, Henderson pounced from deep to create chaos.

The problem for Rodgers right now is that, unlike virtually every other role in the team, he has no one that directly replaces that midfield running.

Even without Suarez, Liverpool can at least redirect the focus of their attack to have enough effect over a short spell. They are sufficiently fluid.

Even without Gerrard, they can temporarily lock someone like Joe Allen in, as happened at Spurs.

The potential midfield replacements for Henderson are either that bit too defensive or that bit too attacking. Neither Allen nor Lucas Leiva offer the same running, Philippe Coutinho necessitates a real compromise. A central three of Allen-Gerrard-Lucas, for example, is very flat. Dropping Coutinho back, meanwhile, leaves a gap between the midfield and attack without Henderson’s forceful running. Everywhere a solution appears, another issue arises. Henderson’s absence, then, may require a reshuffle of formation more radical than anything the Liverpool manager has come up with so far.

The side’s backroom state that, in general, Rodgers’ changes are not that deep because the framework and style ultimately remains the same and the players have been trained to tweak. Henderson’s suspension, though, will involve tilting the team’s axis.

At the same time, there is an argument that is precisely the challenge that the side’s season has been building up to, and one that will effectively decide the greater challenge of so unexpectedly winning this title.

If Liverpool’s campaign has been defined by a ferocious flexibility no one has been able to figure out, Rodgers must prove himself more flexible than ever.

It will likely be the difference in holding firm at the top of the table.