Although most Liverpool players will have their very own fitness regime handed to them ahead of their pre-season tour of Australia and the Far East this summer, the club will reportedly take extra care with perpetually injured striker Daniel Sturridge.
The 25-year old, who has missed large swathes of the season with various ailments, is almost certain to miss the trip to relegation threatened West Bromwich Albion this weekend on the back of sitting out the FA Cup semi-final exit to Aston Villa with a hip problem that he picked up in the quarter-finals. This, of course, doesn’t do the goal shy Reds any favours with the club battling to secure an unlikely return to the lucrative fields of the Champions League next season.
Getting Sturridge running at full tilt by the start of the next campaign already looks to be of the utmost importance; when you consider the massive drop-off in goals that the Reds have scored this season in comparison to last, it’s quite clear exactly how important the England man is to this team. Five months on the sidelines has resulted in his disappointing goal haul for the season — though, to be fair, his four Premier League strikes are equal to that of team-mates Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini combined.
Liverpool will look to supplement those numbers this summer with highly rated youngster Divock Origi arriving from Lille when his loan expires at the end of the Ligue One season, but he’s not expected to make a big impression right off the hop. The Reds are also being linked with Borussia Dortmund striker Ciro Immobile and they’re also set to renew their interest in Burnley’s soon to be free agent Danny Ings, but the pick of the litter looks to be a big money move for PSV Eindhoven’s Dutch sensation Memphis Depay with talks between the two clubs reportedly already open.
