"Mascherano is okay and is fit. He will be here." said Rafael Benitez.
"But Alonso's girlfriend is having a baby so he will not be here. Maybe we will try to change without Xabi. We have the training session tonight [Monday] and then we will decide.
"We were talking but he had a clear idea of what he wanted to do. He wanted to come if everything was okay, but we couldn't wait and in the end we needed to decide.
"I cannot wait for one player. You cannot wait and so I had to make use of my squad."
