Klopp Confirms Sturridge Injury

Just when you thought it was safe to feel hopeful, when captains and goalscorers were coming back from injury just in time for the busy holiday season, when Jürgen Klopp had us agreeing this was all pretty boss tha', we get a reality checking loss to Newcastle, and now the inevitable Daniel Sturridge injury.

The depression beard don't lie. Yesterday's reports that Sturridge had reaggraveted his hamstring injury have proved accurate, and the phenomenally talented but injury-ravaged striker is set for yet another spell on the sidelines. Jürgen Klopp confirmed as much in Wednesday's pre-match press conference, with no word of an expected return date:

"It’s a hamstring and it’s not easy to say when he can be back for us.

"There are two different things we have to look at – the one thing is the injury and the other is how we can bring him into a shape that is not so intensive for him, so he needs to train.

"The good thing with the muscle injury is that early [on] he can start to run and to train - not football but all the other things he needs. If you look at his history in the last months, and maybe the last year, it’s not a long time he’s been able to train.

"With all the games [we have], we have to find the specific point when it’s possible to bring him [on] for minutes and what makes most sense for his general shape.

"I can’t say at this moment what we will do exactly, but we’ll have to look at it."

With Christian Benteke struggling to strike a balance between difference-making scorer of pants-eviscerating volleys and immobile, isolated, ineffective striker; Divock Origi still young and inconsistent; and Danny Ings out for the season, another Sturridge injury leaves Liverpool in a precarious position. Roberto Firmino has shown an ability to lead the line, but the vertical threat and instinctive finishing offered by the classy number fifteen are qualities that set him apart from the alternatives.

So there are things we have to look at indeed. We have to look at how the club is going to cope in the immediate future with its first choice striker injured twice as often as he is healthy. We have to look at how to get Sturridge healthy again. We have to look at a way to manage the player so he stays healthy. And in the end, we might be forced to take a long, hard look at whether Daniel Sturridge has a future as a Liverpool striker, and indeed a professional footballer.