Babbel set for Anfield exit?

30-year-old Babbel, who forged his reputation at Dortmund's deadly rivals Bayern Munich before moving to Anfield in the summer of 2000, has impressed during pre-season but is likely to be below both Steve Finnan and Jamie Carragher in the race to be the regular right-back at the club.

The German outfit are in the market for a new defender after seeing both Torsten Frings and Christoph Metzelder struck by injury after the opening day of the Bundesliga campaign.

Dortmund's sports director Michael Zorc refused to deny interest in the Anfield defender when asked if the club were actively pursuing Babbel.

He said: "Our roster is too thin after the latest injuries. We're thinking very very seriously about acquiring another player. I'm not ruling anything out."