Roy Hodgson is hopeful David Ngog will shake off a hamstring injury in time to be available for selection against Birmingham on Sunday.

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The French striker was withdrawn from his country's U21 squad after picking up the minor knock, but Hodgson today reported his in-form striker is winning his race to be fit for the clash at St Andrews.

"He has been nursing a problem but is much better now," said the Liverpool boss. "We were obliged to withdraw him from the French U21 squad because when they got together 10 days ago he wasn't fit.

"The French people were very good about that and realised there was a problem. I am hoping that he will recover in time for this weekend. We have nursed him through and hopefully he will train either today or Friday."

While Ngog could be available for Sunday's game, one player who will definitely miss out is Dirk Kuyt after the Dutch striker sustained a shoulder injury while training with his national team.

Initial reports are that Kuyt faces four weeks on the sidelines, but Hodgson fears his absence could stretch to even longer.

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"It could be more than four weeks," he said. "It's one of those injuries where it's very difficult for the doctor to say and I think four weeks is a very conservative estimate. If we're lucky it could be earlier, but it could be longer. We have to be very careful because it's the type of injury that has to be treated with a lot of respect.

"It's a great blow for us because Dirk is an important member of our first team. He does a job which is not easy to replace because he has all the qualities required for that role on the field. I was very sad to see such a thing happen, especially in a training session. It would have been bad enough to happen playing for the national team in a competitive match, but for it to happen in training was even more of a blow.

"He's a quick mender and he has a great mentality and attitude towards recovery, so he will be back as quick as is humanly possible. But we're looking at at least a month and possibly longer."

Apart from Kuyt, the only other player definitely out of this weekend's game is Fabio Aurelio as the Brazilian continues to nurse an achilles problem.

"Fabio is making very good progress and is definitely moving in the right direction," said Hodgson. "It was a relatively minor problem but one we had to nip in the bud because achilles injuries can be very problematic."