Liverpool Pre-Everton Team News: Rodgers Gives Latest On Sturridge, Gerrard & More

Liverpool get back to Premier League action after the international break when they take on Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday lunchtime.

Ahead of the game, boss Brendan Rodgers has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press confrence and gave Liverpoolfc.com a team news and injury update with the latest on the fitness of Daniel Sturridge, Steven Gerrard, Jose Enrique and Kolo Toure.

Rodgers confirmed the bad news that left-back Enrique requires surgery to cure a long-standing knee problem that’s troubled the Spaniard for much of the season. Enrique has failed to start any of Liverpool’s last four games and it now appears he’s set for an extended spell on the sidelines.

Rodgers told the clubs official website:

“We’re just waiting for clarification on his injury, but it looks like he’ll probably need a small operation,”

“It’s disappointing because he has been out for a couple of months and we’ve tried various ways to get him back fit. But he’s still in pain.

“The conclusion will be that he’ll need the operation and we’ll assess it from there. I just need to wait and see, wait to hear from our head doctor later on today, and we’ll get a better idea of how long that will be.”

Rodgers was also quizzed about the fitness of Sturridge after the striker played the full 90 minutes against Germany on Tuesday night despite carrying a leg injury. The Northern Irishman confirmed the club will assess how the former Chelsea man is before deciding whether he’ll be in contention to face Everton.

“He obviously went to England with an injury. He’s had a dead leg for about three to four weeks that he has been playing through. He hardly trained when he left, after the Fulham game.

“We’ll assess him; he’s back recovering after that, with the other international players. We’ll see how it is over the next couple of days.”

Captain Gerrard also took part in both of England’s friendlies raising concerns about possible burn-out, but Rodgers paid tribute to the 33-year-old midfielder and says he’s managing his own fitness in a professional manner.

“It’s very simple; he’s a brilliant professional,” said the Northern Irishman. “He is someone that manages his body really well – he knows he’s got a superb medical team here to support that.

“The training methodology helps him because he’s working in different spaces and different exercises on a daily basis. That takes away a lot of impact and physicality.

“He just manages himself really well. He knows his body. Over the last 18 months, you only need to look at his record since we came in – it has been very good.

“In big part, that is down to him and his professionalism.”

The final update was for defender Toure – who missed the 4-0 win over Fulham before the international break – but the Ivorian is now back in training and could feature against the Toffees. Rodgers continued:

“He’s been back training, so there’s no problem.”

So with the exception of Enrique, Liverpool look in good health as they make the short trip to Goodison looking for three points to take them top of the Premier League.

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