While Rafael Benitez, pre-match, ranted and railed about the injustice of being denied Mohamed Sissoko and Dirk Kuyt because of injuries sustained playing for their countries in midweek, Blackburn's Australian pair, Brett Emerton and Lucas Neill, were in the air, completing a round trip of more than 20,000 miles following their own international appearances.
Yet there was little sign of any jetlag affecting their form here as they formed an important part of a Blackburn performance that would have produced a famous victory, courtesy of Benni McCarthy's goal in the first half, but for a Liverpool equaliser claimed, inevitably enough, by former Rover Craig Bellamy.
'How the hell they do it, I don't know,' said Hughes of his Australian pair who played against Bahrain on Wednesday. 'They travelled for 26 to 28 hours leading into the game, they didn't train yesterday and turned up at 5pm at the hotel. That was the first we saw of them.
'Yet they continue to produce performances like that. I had to have a word with them before to see if they felt ready for a game of this size and they were very positive and said they were ready to play. It is a big commitment for them but when you are a top player, an international player, you are going to have those sort of commitments. It's more difficult for guys from Australia because of the distances involved but they are proud to play for their country.'
How refreshing to hear a Premiership manager not using the spectre of international football as an easy get-out. It helped, of course, that his players did such a good job against an uninspiring Liverpool whose defending, in the first half in particular, was appalling.
The primary weapon before the interval was the right winger David Bentley, whose accurate far-post deliveries were clearly intended to test Steve Finnan, in the Liverpool right-back position, and it was precisely this tactic that produced the game's opening goal in the 17th minute.
Bentley's wicked cross just eluded Jamie Carragher's attempted header and bounced awkwardly, beyond the reach of Finnan who had not judged his angles at all well, and goalkeeper Jose Reina. At the end of it was McCarthy who calmly swept in his sixth goal in 10 league and cup games for Rovers this season, an instant and impressive return on the £2.5million the club paid Porto for the South African in the summer.
It had started brightly enough at the other end for Liverpool, with Andre Ooijer clearing off the line from Peter Crouch after Brad Friedel had saved from John Arne Riise and the former Liverpool keeper diving to deny a later Crouch attempt as well as turning a long-range Steven Gerrard effort around a post.
But Liverpool adopted a more direct approach after the restart. Blackburn gave away a number of set pieces - one of which Luis Garcia almost turned in to the goal - and, from Fabio Aurelio's 64th-minute corner, Liverpool levelled as the ball flew through a crowded six-yard box to the far post where an unmarked Bellamy was able to head home his first league goal of the season with the minimum of fuss.
'It had to be Craig!' said Hughes 'I thought we kept him really quiet all afternoon but we just switched off one the one set play and Craig got in.
'I can't say I'm pleased for him today but he was excellent for us last year, he was a big success and a big part of the success we had as a team. He's an exceptional footballer with a great work ethic and I'm sure he will be a success here.'
Hughes' disappointment would have been considerably lessened if Bentley had converted with the last chance of the game instead of hitting Reina's backside but Rovers could feel far more content with the afternoon's endeavours than their hosts.