Good squad player, great work ethic, premier league experience. I dont care how many times hes done his ACL, he deserves a proper chance under Klopp before hes criticized.
"Injury prone" is not a criticism. It's a fact.
He's literally lost around 24 months through FOUR, count'em: FOUR serious knee injuries
He had two serious knee injuries with Burnley, and now has had two with us.
One age 19 in 2011
One age 20 in 2012
One age 23 in 2015
One age 24 in 2016
I don't know if there's been another player in the history of top flight football who's had so many serious knee injuries at the age of 24.
I mean, sure, he may not ever have another such injury (or maybe going by his pattern so far, he'll now go 2 years without injury until he goes for another 2 year run of injuries). But we would be willfully naive to expect it.
And all this is without taking the perspective that basically, players don't tend to come back stronger after 2 knee operations, let alone 4.
At the time we got him, he was worth a punt. He's obviously turned out to be a nice, if permanently injured lad. Bit like Sturridge, but not nearly as good.
We just can't count on him as one of our striking options. Not when this time last week we were sweating over the possibility of having zero out of four fit strikers ready to play.