Frustration far outweighed shock with the news that Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge would be missing for the next couple of weeks with a hamstring problem and though Reds boss Jurgen Klopp insisted that it wasn’t as bad as initially feared, he stopped short of putting a time frame on his return.
“It’s a hamstring injury and it’s not easy to say when he is back for us,” explained the Reds boss in his pre-match press call. “There are two different things we have to look on. The one is the injury and the other is how we bring him into shape so it’s not so intensive for him when he needs to train,” continued Klopp, looking for positives. “The good thing with the muscle injury is he could start to run and all the others things he needs, but not play football.”
Sturridge has a long and well documented history with injuries which have thus far blighted his career. The crux of the problem it seems is that he’s not fit long enough to build up his fitness and even regular training will take a toll on him. In most cases, players have pre-season to get themselves back in to shape after a short, but the 25-year old hasn’t had a chance to do anything of the sort and is often rushed back as soon as he’s available — something that Klopp may look to change along with a modified training regime.
“If you look at his history in the last month and year its not the longest time he could train. It is very important with all the games we have to find the specific point when it is possible to bring him for minutes and what makes more sense for his general shape. I can’t say what we will do exactly, but we have to look at it. “The injury is not that serious but we have to build up his resistance. That is how it is.”
