According to James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo, Mario Balotelli will miss Liverpool’s match against QPR on Saturday after picking up a foot injury in the defeat to Hull earlier in the week.
Balotelli has managed just one goal in 16 Premier League appearances for the Reds and has struggled with injuries and illnesses all season.
The news of Balotelli’s unavailability wouldn’t be nearly as bad if Daniel Sturridge had not also been plagued with injury issues all season.
The England international has a hip problem that he got against Man United over a month ago and has reportedly flown to America to sort out the issue. While we can point the finger at Rodgers for this signings and tactics this season, nobody can deny that injuries to Sturridge and Balotelli killed any chance of Liverpool being a champions league contender, never mind a title contender.
We saw a glimpse at Spurs early in the season of how good that Sturridge and Balotelli could be together, but that is all it was. A tantalizing glimpse. I bet in his worst nightmares that Rodgers never envisioned a scenario where play the equivalent of less than 20 games between them at this point of the season \.
So what does Rodgers do against QPR? Does he persists with Sterling in the false number nine role, or does he gives Rickie Lambert a rare opportunity to lead the line on Saturday?
