Friday, February 22, 2008

Daniel Agger Set To Be Eased Back Into Action

Injury-jinxed Daniel Agger has been given the go-ahead to resume his Liverpool career.

But the centre-back will be eased back into the first-team fray by Rafael Benitez after missing the last five months with a broken metatarsal.

Agger was told he can make his long-awaited comeback after visiting a specialist in Denmark yesterday.

The 23-year-old has been training in a pair of specially-modified boots and was close to making a return last month before suffering a setback.

Now his injury nightmare appears to finally be at an end, although Agger is unlikely to be thrown straight into the team despite Liverpool facing a centre-back crisis tomorrow.

With Jamie Carragher serving a one-match suspension, Martin Skrtel almost certainly still out and Jack Hobbs on loan at Scunthorpe United, Sami Hyypia is the only other senior centre-back available to Benitez for the Premier League visit of Middlesbrough.
Skrtel has missed the last two games after picking up a calf injury during training last week, and isn’t expected to regain full fitness in time for tomorrow’s game.

“The treatment has been going well,” said the Slovakian international yesterday.

“It has got better and better. The prognosis was that I should be back in up to 10 days and this is the ninth one.”

Meanwhile, Xabi Alonso will decide on his Anfield future at the end of the season.

The Spain midfielder became a regular in the Liverpool team on his arrival from Real Sociedad as one of Benitez’s first signings in August 2004.

However, this season Alonso has suffered from a metatarsal injury and a loss of form, and has seen both Javier Mascherano and Lucas Leiva move ahead of him in the central midfield pecking order.

Alonso, who has started just 13 games this campaign, was an unused substitute for the Champions League triumph over Inter Milan on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old signed a new five-year deal in the summer but has long been courted by Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Former Liverpool youngster Besian Idrizaj has been released from hospital in Austria after collapsing while playing for new club FC Wacker Innsbruck on Saturday.

The 20-year-old fell to the floor 14 minutes after coming on as substitute in his team’s game against Sturm Graz.

Extensive heart and brain tests showed no obvious problem and Idrizaj, who never played for the Liverpool first team but scored a hat-trick in the friendly win at Wrexham in July, has been allowed to return home.

The striker left Anfield for his homeland on transfer deadline day last month after loan spells at Luton Town and Crystal Palace earlier this season.

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