Roy Hodgson has said that players like Ismaila Sarr will be pivotal in Watford's search for Premier League safety and thinks the winger has a good chance of being involved at Liverpool this weekend.

After a month on the touchlines with a hamstring injury, the 24-year-old played twice for his nation during the international break and is now back and available for the Hornets once again.

Whether or not it will be from the bench or in the starting line up depends on how much his involvement in Senegal's World Cup qualifying matches has taken its toll on his fitness.

The most recent of those matches took place on Tuesday night, with Sarr playing all 120 minutes as the match against Egypt went beyond extra time and into penalties.

However, Hodgson thinks it is reasonable to expect that the player is involved in the game at Anfield on Saturday and said he has a big part to play between now and the end of the season.

"His chances of being involved are okay as far as I'm concerned," said the manager. "I've seen him today, he's been recovering but as long as tomorrow he convinces us that he's recovered from the efforts...it was 120 minutes as well, and he played both games, so it's been been a hard journey for him to play for Senegal this time, but a successful one, so that's buoyed his spirits I'm sure.

"I'm pretty certain that he'll be putting his hand up tomorrow to ask to be put into the into the starting lineup. And as far as I'm concerned, a player of his quality is going to be very, very important for the club, if we are going to pull ourselves away from the relegation zone, because you can't do it without players of that sort of quality."

Sarr will be fighting for places against the likes of Cucho Hernandez, Joao Pedro and Emmanuel Dennis, while Joshua King's hat-trick for Norway in midweek could see him going into the game with boosted confidence.

Hodgson is pleased to see competition for places improving and said it will be three out of those five that take to the field, as he prepares to set up in his familiar 4-3-3 formation.

"Many people would have suggested that Cucho and Pedro were not part of the fancied front three, but they did so well, they've made themselves part of a potentially fancied front three," he continued. "So that's good. And they've worked very, very hard those two during the week. So the competition for places now for this weekend will be, as it should be, because it's three from five [that will play]."