Daniel Sturridge’s Liverpool career is at a crossroads – but which path will he take?

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Injuries are an accepted part of football. However, it seems every club has a player who is susceptible to them more than most. This is clearly frustrating for the individual, club and the fans in general. While there is an initial feeling of sympathy for the player, their continuing absence seems to wear thin after a while.

This is indeed the case in regards to the ongoing injury saga of Liverpool and England striker Daniel Sturridge. However, it was not always this way. Cast your mind back to the 2013-14 season when the trio of Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling, and Sturridge were cutting a swathe through opposition defences on a weekly basis.

While Sturridge’s achievements that season were overshadowed somewhat by the pure brilliance of Suarez, it still deserves to be put into some context of its own. In 29 league appearances throughout that campaign, the Englishman scored 21 goals – a stunning per game ratio of 0.72. Quite incredibly, at that stage of his Liverpool career, he had scored 31 goals in just 43 league appearances.

Liverpool fans were wondering whether they were seeing the progression of a world class talent. However, a true dose of reality was about to set in with the acrimonious departure of Suarez to Barcelona in the summer of 2014, meaning Sturridge was instantly thrust into the role of leader of the strike force.

From the outside, he looked to be someone that would relish that kind of responsibility, but in truth, it was a role he couldn’t deal with, either physically or mentally. In a season where hopes were high that Liverpool could produce another meaningful title run, they stumbled from one crisis to another, with the injury woes of Sturridge a catalyst for the shambolic campaign (you can get all the latest football tips at www.footballbets.tips).

A catalogue of niggling muscle injuries, which included thigh and hip ailments, saw the striker play just 12 league games, with a return of four goals. It was certainly not the sort of tally you would be hoping for from your main striker.

While fans and the club, in general, hoped that Sturridge’s injury hit season of 2014/15 was a one-off, it has instead grown into a regular occurance. Across the last two seasons, Sturridge has played in just 28 of a possible 66 league games, with his most consistent run of fitness coming at the tail end of last season.

A new campaign brought hope that Sturridge could finally put his woes behind him and he started in encouraging fashion, featuring in seven of the first nine league fixures (four starts, three substitute appearances).

However, since the middle of October, the England international has started just one league game and scored two Premier League goals. The saga surrounding the striker’s ongoing fitness battle has dragged on for so long now, that his commitment to the game has been questioned by fans and pundits, alike.

His manager Jurgen Klopp, who at times has been visibly frustrated by his constant unavailability, has implored him to push through the pain barrier and distinguish between what is “real pain” and what is just “pain.” Most recently, the 27 year-old was sent home from a Liverpool warm weather camp in Spain with a virus and is currently on the injured list again, with another hip injury.

In recent press conferences, Klopp has wasted very little time in discussing the availability of the striker, which gives you an indication of how the long running situation is viewed by the man in charge. With what has occurred over the past few seasons, it begs the question, could Daniel Sturridge be the biggest wasted talent of his generation?

When fit and firing there are not many better strikers in England, as his record shows. Despite all of his injury troubles, he still sits fourth in terms of Liverpool’s most clinical players in the Premier League era, with a goal per game ratio of 0.542 (45 goals in 83 games).

He has all the attributes to be a great player, due to his impressive level of speed and skill, and when you take everything into account, he should really be in his footballing prime. However, the striker has teased the football audience with glimpses of his talent, but nothing which has lasted for a sustained period.

Injuries have managed to conspire against him in the past few years, but it has to be noted that his attitude has regularly been poor when given the opportunity to perform. Klopp demands a high level of work rate by every member of his squad, and it is no coincidence that he has been a unused substitute a number of times over the past couple of seasons.

A deal of faith has been lost due to his consistent absences, and it certainly looks like it is time for Sturridge to move to another club to rejuvenate his career. Teams like West Ham have been rumoured to be interested in the past, and who is to say someone like Everton won’t have a look at him, especially if they sell Romelu Lukaku.

Some may say that the rigours of injury and his inability to consistently push his body to the limit means that the England international will never live up to his potential. However, he still has has time on his side to prove the doubters wrong and re-invent himself, but only Daniel Sturridge can change the direction his career goes from here.

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