Joe Cole will be given the chance to save his Liverpool career by new manager Brendan Rodgers.
The 30-year-old midfielder had been linked with a return to West Ham after a successful year-long loan spell at French side Lille.
But the arrival of Rodgers, who worked with Cole during their time at Chelsea and described him as 'a wonderful talent', has offered him an Anfield reprieve.
'Joe Cole will stay at Liverpool,' Lille coach Rudi Garcia coach told Canal+.
'The new staff have decided to keep him. We will remember him very fondly as a player but also as a man.'
During his loan spell in France, Cole scored four times in 27 appearances and played alongside Chelsea's new £32m signing Eden Hazard.
Cole will be one of the players asked to work hard and contribute to a 'cause worth fighting for' as Rodgers seeks to turn around the club's fortunes.
For all the praise Rodgers' teams have received for their easy-on-the-eye style, he knows first and foremost he has to get them winning regularly again - and that will only come with effort.
He insists significant, whole-hearted commitment is the very minimum he requires from his squad.
'I have conditions to work in. I create a framework and the players come in and adhere to,' said the 39-year-old.
'I hear people talking about working hard but for me it is an obligation, it's not a choice.
'We all work hard in our everyday lives as people and for players it is no different.
'It is quite simple. You come in and do a hard day's work. You make sure in training and on match days you come in and you can take your top off and wring it out and it will be soaking wet.
'It is that honesty you want. If you can work hard and you have got talent it takes you a long way.
'That will be the emphasis for me here, to try to reinforce that and ensure that commitment to the cause is important because we have a cause to fight for here.'
By SPORTSMAIL REPORTER
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