Sturridge Is Playing Through The Pain

This week on “Uh Oh, Daniel Sturridge” we’ll bring you the latest in a long series of deflating uh, oh’s for the Liverpool striker. The difference is that this time it’s the same as the other times. It’s his body.

It seems our Sturridge was playing with some not-insignificant aches in the match with Sydney FC. It’s one of the hips. They don’t ever say which. But, Sturridge has played a lot for the Sturridge of the last couple years. And the long flight to Australia can’t have helped his various injuries-in-repair. But the England goalscorer still found the gusto to put one into the net and serve up another for Roberto Firmino.

When the team returns to England, Daniel will get an injection to stave off his pain and then presumably there’s going to be a lot of time with the trainers over the summer. Unfortunately, for a player who was just starting to get a spark sparking, this newest sojourn into the rehab room steals any hope of showing for England in their matches against Scotland and France. But that always seemed a bridge to far anyway. Relax. Mend. And then be awesome, for real, again. For me and my friends.

Will Daniel Sturridge stay at Liverpool for next season, the writer began a paragraph asking? I have my answers. One of them is “No” but there are others. Ultimately, Sturridge’s future is probably still very much a question mark for everyone who might actually be involved with it. He will know what Jürgen Klopp expects and where he currently stands in the order of selection. He will know them as facts because professionals. But the summer plans are the same for Sturridge no matter what happens: he will have to train regularly and prove he can stay fit through preseason. Any team with Daniel Sturridge will require him to be available for more than three games or so at a stretch.

“We speak about everything,” said Klopp. “We spoke, we speak. It’s not just a case of starting with things now.

“It’s not just my talks, it’s talks with Michael Edwards, with agents or whatever. We speak to everybody. In the end, everybody will know what happens when it happens.

“It’s not always in our hands. It’s not just about Daniel. That’s how transfers work, whether someone stays or not.”

There’s plenty of reason to believe this hip pain will subside and Sturridge is legit at the beginning of a return to something, if not magical, at least meaningful. But mostly this just gives us boo hoo faces right now because why can’t we ever have anything nice?