Liverpool Pre-Everton Team News: Update On Sturridge, Henderson, Coutinho + More

Liverpool will look to get their Premier League season back on track when they entertain Mersey rivals Everton at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime.

Ahead of the game, Brendan Rodgers has been speaking at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and gave Liverpoolfc.com a team news and injury update including the latest on striker Daniel Sturridge.

The 25-year-old has missed the last three weeks due to a thigh injury he suffered during training while away with the England squad earlier this month and he had been pencilled in to return to full training this week and be in contention on Saturday.

The striker has been back on the training pitch doing light work and although he’s not yet been given the green light by the clubs medical staff to resume full training, Rodgers has confirmed he’ll give his star striker every chance to prove his fitness for this weekend.

Rodgers told the clubs website:

“We’ve got a number of injuries that we’re just going to give every chance to. Obviously the game is 48 hours away.

“[Sturridge] is a player who is out on the field working. Daniel and a number of others we’ll assess nearer the time. If he doesn’t make it, then he won’t be far off after that.

“He is someone that responds well to treatment and it’s gone well – he’s out on the field. There’s still a couple of days to go yet before the game. The most important thing is that he is nearer to fitness.

“He certainly won’t be match fit – he hasn’t played for a few weeks. But it would be great to have him back because he’s a wonderful player for us.

“He’s a great reference for our team at the top of the field. His pace and movement and quality that we saw the last time he played for us, against Tottenham. He was exceptional.

“We’ll be very happy to have him back and we hope that can be this weekend. But we’ll assess over the next couple of days.”

Although Rodgers doesn’t give us any specific update on the duo, the Liverpool Echo claim that there should be some better news on the fitness of Philippe Coutinho with the attacker expected to recover from a groin problem while Jordan Henderson is also likely to be available despite a minor hip injury ruling him out of Wednesday nights League Cup win over Middlesbrough.

The 24-year-old is going to be needed in midfield as Joe Allen and Emre Can are still unavailable through injury and they join Glen Johnson and Jon Flanagan on the sidelines.

Rodgers is expected to recall a number of first team regulars after resting some of his key men last night and the Northern Irishman will be hoping for a much-improved performance following last weekend’s disappointing 3-1 defeat at West Ham.