Rory Smith
Last updated at 12:01AM, November 20 2014
Possibly the most telling assessment of Daniel Sturridge’s injury troubles came from the player himself in a radio interview, just after he had sustained the thigh strain while away with England that is threatening to blight his season.
“Maybe it’s hereditary,” the Liverpool striker said of his propensity to pick up muscle strains. “Maybe the fast-twitch muscle fibres that [mean] I have speed make me more vulnerable.”
There is no question that Sturridge is injured. The thigh issue that caused Brendan Rodgers and Roy Hodgson to fall out, the calf injury that delayed his comeback, the thigh problem he picked up this week: they are all real. But there is a psychological dimension to such things, too, and it is here that Liverpool perhaps have more cause for concern.
There are, broadly speaking, two types of player: those who will play through injury and those who feel they have to be almost in peak condition to give of their best. Those who have worked with Sturridge would probably suggest that he fits the latter category.
Both of his first two injuries this season were grade 1 strains. That ordinarily means a period of 12 to 20 days’ rest and recovery before a return to full training. Sturridge needed twice that for the thigh strain and a month, more or less, for the calf problem. On both occasions, the striker was told by the club’s medical team that he was ready to train before he felt he was.
That has led to exasperation among some of Rodgers’s staff with his progress. They have noted that Sturridge’s approach last season was very different; they believe it is because then he felt he had something to prove: namely that he belonged in the same class as Luis Suárez.
Without that motivation, he has reverted to a form of caution that can look like fear. Here, too, he is far from alone. An abundance of quick, explosive players are plagued by muscle strains. The problem is that as soon as one injury is sustained, there is a worry that another may follow.
Sturridge’s dilemma is that he feels mistiming his return could lead to more serious problems. It is not clear what the solution is. He feels he is vulnerable. With every setback, that will only increase.
