Brendan Rodgers Coy on Sebastian Coates' Liverpool Future

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has refused to be drawn into speculations surrounding Sebastian Coates' future.

The defender did not feature for the Reds in the previous campaign after suffering a serious knee injury in August last year. He returned to his boyhood club, Nacional in January till the end of the season to speed up his recovery.

The Uruguayan international recovered on time to stake his place in Oscar Tabarez's 23-man squad for the World Cup in Brazil and is now in contention to break into Rodgers' first team next season.

Coates has struggled to get his name regularly into Liverpool's starting lineup since arriving in 2011 under Kenny Dalglish's reign. The centre-back has to compete for a starting berth against the likes of Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger, Kolo Toure, Mamadou Sakho, Tiago Illori and summer signing Dejan Lovren.

However, Rodgers put a question mark over the South American's future at Anfield by refusing to speculate on the 23-year-old's chances of getting more playing time with the first team next season.

"He's been at the club for a few years, so I think the question for Sebastian will be whether he is going to get enough games that will satisfy his own personal need, because he's a talent - there's no question about that," Rodgers told Liverpool's official website.

"He's a real good guy as well, a humble man, he never cries about not playing. He accepts as a professional that he's not going to play in every game.

"But he has worked hard at training to get fit after his injury last season and he now looks fit. He has done well in the games and we'll see what the rest of the summer holds," he added.

Despite putting Coates' future under the cloud, Rodgers heaped praise on the South American, citing the defender's strong response in pre-season fixtures against Olympiakos and Manchester City.

"He has done very well over pre-season. He's a player that played in the team when I first came into the club. He played in some of the league and European games then was out of the team," the 41-year-old former Swansea City boss explained.

"He was very unfortunate to have a bad injury that put him out for a while. He's done really, really well in pre-season. He's a big boy, but he can play football - he has a lovely touch, lovely technique, can pass the ball and can be aggressive," he concluded.