Liverpool ready to recall Owen and Heskey

Michael Owen could be back for Liverpool in their Worthington Cup semi-final against Sheffield United tonight. The England striker, who is expected to play in the first leg at Bramall Lane, has been forced to sit out the last two matches because of a hamstring problem.

The Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier said: "We are hoping that Michael could be back. He has a good chance of being involved and we will probably decide after training. He was due to have a session [on Monday] but couldn't train properly because of the frost."

Should he be available, Owen is likely to form a partnership with Emile Heskey, who has been out with an ankle injury but came off the bench at Maine Road in last weekend's FA Cup tie and suffered no reaction.

With El Hadji Diouf, Milan Baros and Neil Mellor pushing for places up front, Houllier has enough cover in that area, but he will again be without the midfielder Dietmar Hamann, who is still having treatment on a shin injury.

Sheffield United's trip to the last four has all but ensured that Neil Warnock's young prospects will not be sold now, or next summer. The double-header with Liverpool, along with home matches in previous rounds against Leeds, Sunderland and Crystal Palace, have helped swell the Blades' coffers by £1.4m. They can expect such funds to comfortably top £2m should they reach the final on 2 March, but for now the money they have collected so far guarantees that no players need to leave.

In the past they have often been forced to sell in times of financial strife, most notoriously when they sold Jan-Age Fjortoft and Brian Deane on the same day in January 1998 for a combined £1.8m. At that stage they were pushing for automatic promotion to the Premiership on the back of the pair's 20 league goals, but their departures led to the club slipping to sixth and losing in the First Division play-off semi-finals.

With United pushing for at least the play-offs, players such as Phil Jagielka and Michael Tonge – the latter has long been of interest to Liverpool – have been touted for big-money moves. Warnock said: "We've already got our rewards whatever the result, picking up close on £1.5m that we wanted to avoid selling any of the youngsters. We were a couple of million quid in deficit after what happened with ITV Digital, but now we are not going to be far away from our targets. It means that, with the likes of Tonge and Jagielka, we haven't got to rush into doing anything."

Warnock conceded there was still no money to buy and he has "to look at wheeling and dealing and crossing my fingers certain players don't get injured". That is why the former Blade Wayne Quinn, who is likely to start at left-back ahead of Rob Kozluk, is on a month's loan from Newcastle after Fulham refused Warnock permission to borrow Jon Harley for a third month. It is why the veteran striker Wayne Allison, now in his 17th season, will start up front, with Steve Kabba Cup-tied.