Diouf left at home

Senegal's El Hadji Diouf's future at Liverpool is uncertain

The future of Senegal's El Hadji Diouf at Liverpool suffered another set-back when the forward was left out of the club's squad to tour the United States.

Liverpool are heading to the US to play three pre-season friendly matches and will take on Celtic of Scotland, Portuguese champions Porto and Italian side Roma.

The Senegal striker has not been given a squad number for the new campaign by boss Rafael Benitez, with new boy Djibril Cisse now wearing the number nine shirt Diouf wore last season.

All the signs seem to point to the fact that the £10m (US $18.5m) misfit has no future at Liverpool.

It has been a bad week for the former African Footballer of the Year, after a Celtic fan announced he was suing the player over a spitting incident in the Uefa cup last year.

Diouf has been a major letdown after joining Liverpool from Lens just after the 2002 World Cup, and former boss Gerard Houllier recently described the player as the biggest disappointment of his time at the club.

Benitez dropped a big hint about Diouf's future earlier this week when he revealed he had only spoken to three players about their futures since arriving.

One, Markus Babbel, has already joined Stuttgart, while full back Gregory Vignal, on loan in Spain last season was another.

The third was Diouf, whose on and off-field behaviour eventually cost him the backing of Houllier.