Liverpool Handed Huge Boost As Rodgers Gives Update On Injured Star

Liverpool have been handed a major boost with boss Brendan Rodgers confirming that Daniel Sturridge is due back in the UK within the next 24 hours as he enters the final stages of his rehabilitation.

Sturridge has been restricted to making just three appearances so for this season and hasn’t featured for the Reds since their 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane back in late August after initially picking up a thigh injury while away with the England squad.

The 25-year-old then suffered a calf injury which ruled him out for a further month before suffering a recurrence of the thigh problem in training in November and has been on the sidelines ever since.

The striker has spent the last month working on his fitness in the United States with a team of specialists but now Rodgers has confirmed that Sturridge is scheduled to arrive back in the UK within the next 24 hours as he enters the final stages of his comeback.

The Reds boss admitted that the club have been cautious with the striker this time around as they want to ensure he’s fully recovered from his troublesome thigh problems, and although he stopped short of naming an exact comeback date, he hopes to have his star man available again before the end of the month.

Rodgers told Liverpoolfc.com:

“He’s at a very late stage, he’s going to be back into the country over the next 24 hours – which is great,”

“He’s into the final stages of rehab. We’re looking forward to having him back. The work that he’s done in America has been fantastic; he has been very well supported out there.

“He has obviously travelled about to get some of the best people in the world, specialising in his rehabilitation. He’ll now come back and finish it off here.

“We’re hoping that at some part in January he’ll be ready to come back into the team and the squad, and help us to achieve something in the second part of the season.”

“We just need to assess him first, just to see where he’s at and get the feeling from him. We’ve taken our time on this one.

“We’re trying to look after the medium and long-term here, so he won’t be rushed. If we feel it’s the right thing to get him playing some practice games and training – then back into the first team – we’ll assess that.

“It’s difficult to forecast, especially with injuries. You can put a date and they come back earlier. You can put the same date and it might take a bit more time.

“We just need to assess it; we’ve had a lot of collaboration with our people in America, a lot of great work has gone in – video links and everything has been in place.

“We’ve been monitoring his situation and he looks in a really good moment. Hopefully, coming back at this late stage, he won’t be too far away. But we’ll just assess that when he does get back.”

It will be a HUGE boost for Rodgers to be able to call upon Sturridge again as they’ve struggled badly without him, with Liverpool managing to score just 28 goals in their 20 Premier League games so far.

Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini have failed to fill his boots up front which has forced Rodgers to play Raheem Sterling through the middle in recent weeks, but Liverpool fans can now start getting excited by the prospect of seeing Sterling linking up with Sturridge in attack.

Sturridge will once again miss out as Liverpool travel to the Stadium of Light on Saturday to take on Sunderland and he’s expected to sit out of next weeks clash with Aston Villa at Anfield. However, if things go smoothly when he returns to training, the England ace could play some part in the FA Cup fourth round tie with Bolton on January 24th.