The Portuguese midfielder left the field clutching his shoulder after coming off second best in a challenge with Grecians defender Danny Coles after just 19 minutes.

Dalglish does not know exactly how long Meireles will be out for but said: "Raul has hurt his collarbone. I don't know what the technical term is but he fell heavily.

"He will come back with us and we will see how long it is before he is back.

"We don't know how serious it is but it'll be a few weeks."

The win, Dalglish's 200th as Reds boss, was inspired by a masterful performance from Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan, left on the bench for the weekend win at Arsenal, opened the scoring with a controlled volley after 23 minutes before setting up second-half goals for Maxi Rodriguez and substitute Andy Carroll.

There was other good news in the form of Martin Skrtel getting through 90 minutes in his first action since returning from a calf problem, while Danny Wilson was an assured presence alongside him in defence.

And Dalglish was delighted to see his side show such application against their League One opponents.

He said: "Martin Skrtel got through the game no problem, Danny Wilson got 90 minutes, Andy Carroll gets his first goal of the season and Maxi got a goal. We are quite happy we have gone through.

"The most pleasing thing was the attitude we had when we went on the pitch. If we didn't have that, we weren't going to win."

Dalglish's strong selection saw the likes of Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson, Pepe Reina and Suarez all start, and suggested that the Scot sees the competition as a chance to secure silverware as opposed to simply give game time to his second-choice players.

He said: "We will treat the Carling Cup like any other game. The next one is a league match against Bolton, but we will be totally committed and focussed to try and win that."

Paul Tisdale's side pulled a late goal back through striker Daniel Nardiello, who found the net from the spot after being brought down by a clumsy Skrtel challenge.

And the Grecians boss was happy with the effort put in by the League One club, but acknowledged the class of their opponents.

"I am proud of the way we played, the boys can be pleased with what they showed and it was nice to get on the scoresheet," he said.

"I am more than happy with how we came back after a slow start and tried to play.

"We were expecting a strongish side and they had an extremely strong bench, so we knew we didn't want to score too early in case they brought that bench on!

"The chance we had just before half-time was a really good chance and we had a couple of other chances but it is always difficult when you come up against players of that quality."