Liverpool Team News: Rodgers Offers Update On Sturridge, Agger, Sakho & More…

Liverpool take on Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday afternoon looking to cement their place in the top four.

Ahead of the game, boss Brendan Rodgers has been speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon and gave Liverpoolfc.com a team news and injury update including the latest on the fitness of Daniel Sturridge, Daniel Agger, Mamadou Sakho, Jose Enrique and Jon Flanagan.

Rodgers confirmed the injury blow that was announced earlier today with Agger set to be out for the next four weeks with a calf strain and after defender limped off during the 2-0 FA Cup win over Oldham Athletic last weekend.

French centre-back Sakho is back in contention after returning to training following a minor knock, but fellow defenders Flanagan and Enrique are still on the sidelines through injury.

However, Rodgers was delighted to announce that Sturridge has been training well all week and has an outside chance of being in the squad to face Stoke City. He told the clubs official website:

“Daniel [Agger] will probably be three to four weeks. Unfortunately he has picked up a calf problem, so he will be out for a while.

“Thankfully, we have now got players starting to come back. Steven [Gerrard] is back, which is great news for us. Daniel Sturridge has been training this week and looking very well.

“Young Sakho trained today so he looks fine to be in the squad for the weekend.

“Jon Flanagan has still got a bit of time to go. Jose Enrique is still out. We’ve got a couple of niggles which we’ll have to look at over the course of the next 24 hours. But we’ll certainly have one or two back.”

Sturridge has been out for over six weeks after injuring his ankle in training and hasn’t featured since scoring the equaliser during the clubs thrilling draw with Everton back on November 23rd.

When pressed as to whether the striker will be in contention this weekend, Rodgers simply confirmed they will assess him over the next 24 hours before making a decision. He continued:

“We’ll see over the next 24 hours,”

“He has made a terrific impact since he came in here, he has been outstanding. We’re working hard with him and his talent to try to really allow that to flourish.

“Over the last four to five weeks it has obviously been difficult for us with injuries and the fitness of the squad.

“But just seeing him on the training field in the last couple of days has been really good – someone of that stature and quality out there. To have that back in your group again gives you great firepower.

“Daniel showed over the course of pre-season that he missed all of our pre-season, came back in having only trained 10 days or so, then started off the season and was outstanding.

“The make-up of his body is really good; he doesn’t put on weight, he has looked after himself really well and he looks at a really good level fitness-wise.

“We’ll assess that over the next 24 hours. We don’t need to rush him, we want to make sure he’s going to be ready to make an impact in the second part of the season.”

Liverpool head into the weekend action sitting fourth in the Premier League table but are just a point ahead of Mersey rivals Everton and with many of the chasing pack playing on Saturday, the Reds could find themselves as low as sixth come kick off, so all three points could be vital at the Britannia to get them back in the top four.

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