Klopp explains why he didn’t risk Daniel Sturridge, who was ‘perfect in training’

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If Liverpool hadn’t already lost Joe Gomez and Danny Ings to potentially season ending injuries last week, Jurgen Klopp may have been tempted to start Daniel Sturridge versus Tottenham, the Echo reports.

The young English pair have been ruled out for the foreseeable, and it’s rated as unlikely that we’ll see either of them again in 2015/16 – terrible news considering their promising starts to life on Merseyside.

And fans began to sweat further when it was revealed at the end of last week that Daniel Sturridge had also picked up an injury in training and would be left out of the side to face Tottenham – with Divock Origi playing up top instead.

But the new boss is adamant that Sturridge’s problem isn’t serious, and if we weren’t in the midst of an injury crisis, he may have played him at White Hart Lane.

“I have known Daniel now for one week, and for six days he was perfect in training. Everything we did he was full of power, skills. He was outstanding,” the German began.

“He did so many good things and then he got this contact with (Jordon) Ibe.

“In another situation I would have talked to him and said, ‘please try.’ But we can’t in a week of two ACL injuries. Come on.

“It is OK for Daniel (to miss the Spurs game). We need Daniel for sure and if we played this game on Thursday then maybe he would play. No problem.

“I trust 100% this player. If Daniel is back then he can play no problem. If he is not then I don’t think about it because if the medics and physiotherapists tell me it is not possible, then it is not possible. I don’t have to discuss it, just think about another solution.”

Despite Klopp’s encouraging comments, it’s more than worrying that Sturridge (our best player when fit) simply cannot be relied upon from week to week.

Thankfully, Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino are expected to return to training this week (via the Echo), meaning the German boss will hopefully have more than Origi to choose from as his centre-forward versus Rubin Kazan on Thursday and Southampton at the weekend.

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