Brendan Rodgers is hopeful that Daniel Sturridge will be fit to face Manchester City…
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has been left with fresh injury concerns ahead of his side’s decisive Premier League clash with Manchester City, with striker Daniel Sturridge carrying a slight-knock.
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The England international only returned from a near five-month injury lay-off against West Ham United at the end of January, and has been pushed hard since his return. However, Rodgers remains hopeful that he’ll be fit to start against his former club this weekend.
Rodgers, who was quoted by Sky Sports, said: “Daniel had given everything in the game. This is a player coming back from five months out injured. We have to be really, really careful he doesn’t break. Daniel’s history shows that.
“There has been very little training in between games. He had no more left in his legs and we needed to take him off to prevent him getting an injury when he was very tired. The bigger picture for us is the Premier League and the FA Cup were our priorities and that’s still the case.”
Many Liverpool supporters have expressed their concerns over whether their team will be fully prepared to take on the defending Premier league champions on Sunday lunchtime, having gone all the way to penalties with Besiktas on Thursday.
Rodgers was quick to try calm those fears, but admitted that it could be an issue, adding: “You don’t need to be a sports scientist to work out that, if you arrive back at 04.30 on Friday morning and have a game early on Sunday, then physically there’s going to be a cost.
“But if you look at where the team is at there is no psychological damage from the other night. You can’t dwell on it. The players gave everything over the two games, we were reasonably solid in the game and one mistake cost a goal.
“It is a different competition (on Sunday). We will move on and hopefully finish the season strongly.”