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Joe Allen will miss Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday as he continues his recovery from a knee injury.

The Wales midfielder hasn’t featured since last month’s defeat to Manchester United but has returned to light training this week.

Allen has endured another injury-ravaged campaign which has restricted him to just 11 league starts so far this season.

The current problem stems from when he was hurt playing for Wales on Andorra’s controversial artificial surface back in September.

“Joe is working outside now and hopefully over the course of the next week or so he will be ready to rejoin the group,” boss Brendan Rodgers told the ECHO.

“He’s had an issue with his knee for most of the season. He came back well initially but it’s been a niggling injury for him. He came on in the game away to Leicester and hurt it again in a tackle.

“We want to make sure that when he comes back he’s right, rather than still feeling the effects which then hinders his performance.”

Dejan Lovren is expected to return to the Liverpool squad for the trip to the North East after being left out of Monday’s FA Cup tie at AFC Wimbledon. The £20m centre-back has trained this week after recovering from the groin injury which kept him out over the festive schedule.

Kolo Toure is away on international duty with Ivory Coast ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, while Glen Johnson (groin), Jon Flanagan (knee) and Brad Jones (thigh) remain sidelined.