Jurgen Klopp: Daniel Sturridge cannot be treated like a 'normal player' at Liverpool

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp reckons Daniel Sturridge can't beat treated like a 'normal player'

JURGEN KLOPP has held heart-to-heart talks with Daniel Sturridge and insisted the Liverpool striker’s injury record means he cannot be treated like a “normal player.”

 

The Liverpool manager also moved to clarify his comments about playing through the pain barrier as he sought to pep the player’s confidence.

Sturridge is included in the Liverpool squad that faces Southampton in the Capital One Cup Quarter-Final tonight as he waits to make his first start under Klopp.

The England forward has been troubled by knee and foot problems since the German took over to go with a long list of ailments which has seen him feature in half the games Liverpool have played since he joined in January 2013.

Klopp had said Sturridge had to learn what was “serious pain,” but ahead of the visit to St Mary’s he had held a round of talks with the attacker.

 

“Maybe it was my fault and my language but I thought I had said ‘We all have to learn’,” said Klopp.

“I read somewhere that “Daniel Sturridge has to learn” what is serious pain. We all have to learn. That is what we have to do.

“With his injury history, someone who has had 20 injuries, you cannot be treated like a normal player.

“We all have our own experiences. If someone has more injuries than someone else, then they will be more in doubt about things. That is normal.

 

“I have only been here for six weeks and we are in a different situation with Daniel. It is not because of his qualities, it is only because of his injuries.”

Sturridge made a second-half cameo in the win over Swansea last Sunday and Klopp vowed to help him.

“Nobody is alone at Melwood,” he said. We will work together and it is getting better and better and better.

“But it was a good talk!”