Brendan Rodgers provided a welcome fitness update in his pre-match press conference today. Liverpool play Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup 4th round on Saturday evening and Rodgers believes he will have Glen Johnson, Mario Balotelli and Joe Allen back for the match. Illness had ruled out Italian Balotelli from partaking in Liverpool’s recent matches while Allen (knee) and Johnson (groin) had not featured since the 3-0 loss to Manchester United on 14th December.
“Joe Allen has been back and trained this week, which has been great. Glen Johnson has had a good week’s training, so he’ll be available. Mario has trained as well, so he is available,” Rodgers told the media.
Jon Flanagan, Brad Jones and Daniel Sturridge remain on the sidelines. Having not played since the end of August, striker Sturridge is close to returning for the Reds and the manager is willing to bide his time cautiously. With matches coming thick and fast, Rodgers is ready to give some of his players a well-earned rest.
“We’ll make some changes, but it’s a game we want to win and we want to progress into the next round,” Rodgers said in the press conference.”
“I’ll do what I’ve done right the way through the season and look at our squad. We’ve got some very good players and we’ll look to make changes, but not too many.”
Youngsters like Jordan Rossiter and Jordan Williams, who have recently made the substitute’s bench, may get an opportunity to impress.
Furthermore, Rodgers also pleased the Liverpool fans with some encouraging news about young Raheem Sterling’s contract situation. Sterling’s contract talks were threatening to become a saga of some sort but Rodgers reckons it will be concluded ‘imminently’.
“Obviously the club are speaking with his representatives on it,” reported the boss. “I would think that will be concluded very imminently.”
“You can see he’s very happy, it’s nothing to do with Raheem – he wants to be here. Hopefully we’ll get a solution on that very soon.“
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