Sturridge Set For England Return

With the January transfer window looking increasingly likely to come to a quiet close for Liverpool, we begin to move our attention back towards less speculative matters. And with that comes news that three of Liverpool's key players have been called up by Roy Hodgson to face Brazil when the World Cup hosts visit to Wembley next week for a prestige friendly.

Daniel Sturridge, Steven Gerrard, and Glen Johnson have all been named to the side, and with Sturridge playing well since moving on from his Stamford Bridge purgatory there's a decent chance all three could in fact start. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this would be terrible news for Liverpool given the meaningless but flashy friendly comes only three days after the club takes part in a must-win contest against Manchester City on Sunday.

With Liverpool's next league match not until the following Monday when West Brom come to town there will at least be a chance to give the club's key players some rest following the match, but that Monday night fixture against the HammersBaggies is in turn quickly followed by a trip to St. Petersburg to face Zenit as the Europa League knockout rounds begin.

There are, however, two pieces of good news for Liverpool on the internationals front. First is that Lucas, still working his way back to full fitness after almost an entire calendar year spent on the sidelines, has not been named to the Brazil squad. Second is that the next round of internationals doesn't come around until the end of March.