"I know that Liverpool will have big games when the Olympics are on and I have to speak to the manager about it," said Mascherano.
"But I want to go to Beijing because playing for my country is the most important thing for me.
"I want to go to the Olympics and play for my country. I am in the squad again so I think I will be going - it's what I want to do. I won a gold medal in Athens and the Olympic Games are very important in Argentina because we have the title.
"It would be important to any athlete to defend the gold medal.
"I haven't spoken to Rafa yet because we have had some big games in the past few weeks, but now is the time to tell him."