Daniel Sturridge Returns to Training Ahead of Mid-January Comeback

Double defeats over the festive period has seen Liverpool drop from first place on Christmas Day to fifth place on New Years, but as Joe Allen and Mamadou Sakho go onto the treatment table following Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday, a number of Reds players are jumping off it and will be back in the mix in the very near future.

Brendan Rodgers confirmed that skipper Steven Gerrard could be fit to face Hull City on Wednesday as the calendar rolls over, and though he wasn’t mentioned specifically by the Northern Irishman, Daniel Sturridge is also on the road to recovery with pictures coming out of today’s training session at Melwood showing the striker kitted up and ready to go ahead of an expected return to action by the second week of January.

After making an early play for the Golden Boot in the opening stages of the season, the former Chelsea man has been out of action since the beginning of December after limping out of training on crutches ahead of the Reds 3-1 loss to Hull City at the KC Stadium. Scans confirmed ankle ligament damage, the same problem that put him in a race to be fit for the start of the Premier League season after getting injured on England duty in May, and put him on the shelf for the crucial Christmas period – something Rodgers has been left to rue.

Three matches in eight days has taken a toll on an already thin squad, but the return of the likes of Gerrard and Sturridge, along with an astute purchase or two during the January window, could re-ignite the title charge that everyone even remotely associated with Liverpool is quick to talk down – or, at least, that’s the story they should be sticking to.