Reds duo to miss out

Assistant boss Gary McAliister confirmed Benteke was going for a scan on the injury on Tuesday and, while the results have not shown the problem to be too serious, Liverpool are not taking any risks and the Belgium global will not play this weekend against his former club.

Brendan Rodgers’ side were held to an underwhelming 1-1 draw against Norwich City at Anfield on Sunday, as their winless streak extended to five games in all competitions. Before that they played in January this year and Liverpool won the game 0 – 2.

“Danny Ings came on [against Norwich] and it was really refreshing to see his performance“, said McAllister.

As a comparison, Sturridge suffered a hamstring injury back in November 2014, and that led to him being out for 71 days, so it could go either way.

He is also certain to miss next week’s Europa League tie against FC Sion and is doubtful for Liverpool’s subsequent clash against local rivals Everton on October 4th.

“Christian is going to have an MRI scan today and hopefully we’ll find the problem”.

“He’s worked his socks off every day here”.

Liverpool and England hero John Barnes is confident that Christian Benteke will prove to be a better strike partner for Daniel Sturridge than Mario Balotelli was ever likely to be.

“It wasn’t a fluke, it’s by pure hard work”. “He’s a quality player and brings something a little bit different”.

“His movement was excellent, he took his goal very well and did everything that could have been asked of him“.

“That’s got to be a good thing and that’s got to be the driving force for players and they’ve got to put that right”.