Sturridge, who was sent home from the England training camp after aggravating a thigh problem in the Reds 1-0 victory against Manchester United over a week ago, has been officially ruled out of the Three Lions World Cup qualifier with Ukraine on Tuesday. The red-hot striker has been in rare form and will be sorely missed by England boss Roy Hodgson after Danny Welbeck picked up yet another yellow card in his side’s 4-0 win over Moldova on Friday night to rule him out of the match. England – who the News Desk isn’t too concerned about – aside, Brendan Rodgers is hopeful that Sturridge will be passed fit to play before he has to bring his side to his old stomping grounds in a clash with Swansea.
With Fabio Borini farmed out on loan to Sunderland and new-boy Iago Aspas still finding his feet, Sturridge has been Liverpool’s key man having scored the winner in each of their opening three Premier League matches. Although the Reds don’t expect that the former Chelsea man will be on the sidelines for too much longer, another former Blue is giving them some graves concerns with speculation surrounding Glen Johnson’s “high ankle sprain” swirling around. It could just be tabloid talk, but with reports coming in that the fullback had actually damaged ligaments in his knee after he collided with both Lucas and Patrice Evra as Brendan Rodgers side held off Manchester United at Anfield, our fullback situation could have gone from bad to worse. As we wait for official confirmation from the club, all we have for the time being are the funny paper reports that Johnson will be spending the next ten weeks on the sidelines – Monday’s are terrible, aren’t they?
