Friday 21 November 2014 16:12, UK
Liverpool are launching a medical investigation after Daniel Sturridge suffered the ninth injury of his career in his left thigh.
The England striker has been ruled out for another six weeks with the second injury of this season to the same thigh.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers previously blamed England for aggravating Sturridge's injury but he has now gone public in his concern about the recurring problem.
Daniel is very disappointed and so are we. It is hugely disappointing to be without a player of his quality.
"We reckon it’s his ninth injury on the same thing from previous clubs here and there," said Rodgers.
"So there seems to be an underlying issue somewhere. Our medical team are looking into it, the latest scans show a slight tear just below where he had a previous injury.
"Daniel is very disappointed and so are we. It is hugely disappointing to be without a player of his quality. Most players you will find want to play through an injury to get on to the field and when the incident happened in training it was through quite an innocuous action.
"He just flicked the ball and instantly felt the pain, it wasn’t a shot or anything that looked as if it might be serious."
There have been suggestions that Liverpool could pay a fee to cut short Divock Origi's loan back to Lille, but Rodgers has instead put pressure on Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert to produce goals in Sturridge's absence.
"For the time being we just have to focus on the players we do have," Rodgers said. "We have to make the best of what is available.
"You could say it presents an opportunity for the guys who have been on the sidelines for a while. We have an exciting period of games coming up, we have to ensure we go back to our basics and be really hard to beat, we need to be strong and aggressive.
"Most of all we want to make an impact in front of goal, now there’s an opportunity for some players who didn’t think they would get a chance."
