IT has been announced that Liverpool Football Club’s central midfield metronome, Lucas Leiva, will make his return from injury two months earlier than expected, during the club’s pre-season tour of North America.
Lucas, who has been side-lined since injuring his anterior cruciate ligaments against Chelsea on December 2nd 2011, is a vital component in the current Liverpool set-up and was sorely missed in the second half of the last campaign.
A reality which is showcased by the fact that he still recorded the second highest number of tackles (behind Jose Enrique) of any Liverpool player, despite being out for half the season.
New boss Brendan Rodgers plans to use the Brazilian over the course of the next ten days as the Reds warm up for next season with games against Toronto FC, Roma and Tottenham Hotspur.
Rodgers told lfctour.com: “He’ll have some involvement. He’s still got some way to go to get back to where he was before the injury but he’s back two months early. This is normally a nine-month injury. He’s been back in seven, and that’s great credit to his work and the work of the medics here.
“He’s done very, very well and is working very hard. We can feed him into some of the games and increase his mental capacity to improve, because obviously it was a serious injury.
“He’s a great guy, he loves his football, loves this club, and he’s making great progress.”
When pushed on whether the midfielder would play any part against Toronto on Saturday, the manager added:
“We shall see. The maximum any player will play on Saturday is 45 minutes.”
You can catch up with Neil on Twitter @Neil1980 or on his blog http://itsallinthegameblog.wordpress.com/
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I think that this has to be the best news this summer up to now.
Fuuhh, YES, finally someone that can take Liverpool to champions league…has arrived.