Daniel Sturridge ‘highly unlikely’ to feature against Real Madrid

Brendan Rodgers is "highly unlikely" to gamble on Daniel Sturridge's fitness for Liverpool's Champions League clash against Real Madrid despite the England striker travelling with the rest of the squad on Monday.

Sturridge has not played for Liverpool since August 31st and last week Rodgers suggested that the 25-year-old would be absence for Tuesday's trip to the Bernabéu as well as Saturday's visit of the Premier League leaders, Chelsea.

He was pictured with his Liverpool team-mates on board the squad’s flight to the Spanish capital, leading to suggestions that he may return early from injury.

However, Rodgers is known to involve players who have been on the sidelines for long spells in squads and says Tuesday’s game is likely to be too soon for the England forward.

Sturridge has managed just three appearances for Liverpool this season, initially picking up a thigh problem when on international duty at the start of September before suffering a calf injury upon his return to training. In his absence Liverpool have managed seven goals in seven Premier League matches while the £16m summer signing Mario Balotelli has scored just twice in 13 appearances, against Ludogorets in the Champions League and in last week's Capital One Cup victory over Swansea.

Meanwhile, Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed Gareth Bale has recovered from a muscle injury and should be available to face Liverpool. Bale, who scored one goal in nine appearances against Liverpool when he was at Tottenham Hotspur, last played for Real in the 5-0 La Liga win over Athletic Bilbao on 5 October but Ancelotti said he was "fine".

“The question is whether to deploy a player who is coming back from injury from the start,” Ancelotti said. “I will decide tomorrow.”

The Real Madrid manager also moved to defend his fellow Italian Balotelli, who received widespread criticism for swapping shirts with the Real defender Pepe at half-time, when the visitors were already leading 3-0, last month “Balotelli is spoken of a lot, maybe too much,” he said. “He has quality and is at a side where they’re not playing well having lost [LUIS]Suárez, who scored a lot.

“They need another solution but I don’t think all of Liverpool’s problems are Balotelli. He needs to do his work for the side, that’s all that can be asked of him – and I don’t have problem with shirt-changing.”