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After a few weeks of hopeful tweets and Vines of the striker working out, Daniel Sturridge today returned to training at Melwood for the first time. This is obviously very good news for both club and player, though fans who have seen Sturridge close on full fitness only to end up injured again one too many times may be waiting until he’s back playing to celebrate.
Sturridge continues to target the middle of September for his return, with a bench appearance against Manchester United on September 12th following the international break not entirely out of the question. The hope will be, though, that whenever he does return, he won’t have been rushed and that this time around he really will be good to go—and to keep on going the rest of the season.
The England striker has scored 40 goals in 66 appearances across all competitions for Liverpool since arriving at the club in January of 2013, racking up a goal return that most attackers could only dream of. He has also unfortunately proven to be highly injury prone, missing 359 days and 59 games—nearly half the club’s total games played—over two and a half seasons.
Those are numbers that fall somewhere between shocking and depressing, but after undergoing surgery in the spring, there is hope the club have finally gotten to the bottom of Sturridge’s injury issues. If they have, this is one of the few times use of the "like a new signing" cliche would seem to not be misguided.
PHOTOS: @D_Sturridge training at Melwood today #LFC pic.twitter.com/7m4i81gH1f
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 27, 2015
