The former Anfield director of football, who was at the club when the striker signed in January 2011, expects Europe’s biggest sides to use his bite ban as a bargaining tool

Liverpool should “definitely” keep Luis Suarez this summer despite the striker’s latest biting controversy, according to former director of football Damien Comolli.

Suarez has been banned from all football-related activity for four months by Fifa for biting Giorgio Chiellini during Uruguay’s Group C victory over Italy.

The Anfield front man stands to miss as many as 13 games as a result, but the club’s former director of football, who was involved in the signing of the striker, believes Suarez is unique and it would be wrong of the club to sell him.

“Who do you replace him with? There is nobody like him around,” Comolli told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“If there was, Real Madrid and Barcelona would go after them and not Suarez.”

Comolli also expects the likes of Barca and Real to use the suspension – Suarez’s second since joining Liverpool after biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic in 2013 – to “drive the price down” in any transfer negotiations.

He added: “If there was a buying club and they felt Liverpool would sell, they will take advantage and try to drive the price down.”

Suarez insists he did not intentionally bite Chiellini, but instead lost his balance and fell on the Italy defender.