Sturridge and Milner doubtful for Arsenal tie

Daniel Sturridge is a doubt for Liverpool’s Premier League opener against Arsenal on Sunday.

Sturridge has battled a number of injury problems in recent seasons and he could be forced to sit out the trip to the Emirates Stadium due to the hip injury he sustained ahead of the club's International Champions Cup tie with Barcelona.

While he has returned to training manager Jurgen Klopp is not prepared to take any risks with the 26-year-old and will wait until the weekend before making a decision on his fitness.

“On Wednesday he could train. On Thursday, he felt [it] a little bit so we will have to see," Klopp told the club's official website.

“Of course, he had a few days where he couldn’t train and that’s not too good for the Arsenal game, but we have other players who are available and that’s good for us. Hopefully it stays like this and we can give Daniel enough time so that when he is fit again, he can then become match fit in the next few days. There are a lot of games to play.

“It is nothing serious with him, but it was enough to get him out of training and so now we have to see. It’s how I always say, we have to think about the players that are available at the moment and all the other guys have to work as hard as possible to become fit again.”

James Milner is also a doubt for the game as a result of the heel injury he picked up last weekend.

“With Millie we have to wait. It’s better than we all expected after the [Barcelona] game when we saw him walking out of the stadium on crutches – that’s not the best picture you want to see after a game," Klopp explained.

“On Sunday he felt better, on Monday he felt better. It’s a bruise in the heel, so that’s really painful and I can say that when it is too painful for Millie, then it’s really painful.

“[We will take] no risk at the moment, we have to wait until everybody says we can go on and that’s what we’ll do.”

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