Liverpool have been dealt another significant blow after Daniel Sturridge broke down in his first session since returning to training. Brendan Rodgers had been hoping to have Sturridge back in time for Sunday’s game at Queens Park Rangers or Wednesday’s Champions League fixture, but after a five-week lay-off since picking up a thigh injury on England duty the striker could now be out for another month with a calf strain.

It means Rodgers will be short-handed up front for several more weeks, with the so far underwhelming Mario Balotelli the most likely attacking option for the visit of Real Madrid in midweek. “It’s not good news,” Rodgers said on learning his player could not even complete a warm-up on his return to training.

Relations between the Liverpool and England camps have been strained all week because of Raheem Sterling’s honesty in admitting to Roy Hodgson in Estonia that his legs still felt sore from the previous game, but the original rift occurred at the beginning of September when England asked Sturridge to train on what he thought should have been a recovery day and he ended up with what the club felt might have been an avoidable injury.

To say Rodgers was annoyed by the situation would be putting it mildly, and that was before Sturridge’s latest breakdown or the necessity of rebuilding Sterling’s confidence. What at present irks the manager even more is the perception that Liverpool want special treatment for their players, or the idea that the second of two recovery days is spent loafing around rather than working.

“I have done quite a bit of research into what works best for players, and the model we use is quite advanced,” Rodgers explained. “The second recovery day isn’t about sitting watching Sky Sports on television, it’s a technical session, a football session, but the intensity is reduced.

“I don’t think some people understand that, even former players. Paul Scholes, Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen are all players I admire, but they must have short memories if they say they were never tired at Raheem’s age. You can be tired and still play, and the point about Raheem is that he never said he didn’t want to play. This is a kid who loves playing, who never misses a day’s training – he is out on the training pitch all day.

“He loves playing for England too – I can still remember the excitement in his eyes when he was first called up. He has enjoyed every minute of that, and I think it is grossly unfair for anyone to accuse him of letting the team down. He was just honest enough to say he felt a bit tired, or that his legs still felt a bit heavy, and I’m sure if you asked the rest of the England squad over half of them would say the same thing.”

Rodgers believes too much has been made of the Sterling incident and would now like to draw a line under the matter and move on, though whether he meets up with Hodgson at Loftus Road on Sunday or not there are bridges that need rebuilding. The Liverpool manager clearly feels there was no need for Hodgson to go so public with what Sterling said. “I don’t blame Raheem, I could never ask a player not to give an honest response to a question,” he said. “But for me every conversation a manager has with a player, or another manager for that matter, should remain private. That’s the simplicity of it.

“I think I have only ever questioned one player in public in terms of improvement, which was Stewart Downing. There was a reason for that, and I think you will find that afterwards he got into the team and played for six months. That’s how I work, and it’s not for me to get involved with how other managers work, but I am sure Roy will probably look at this episode maybe going forward and analyse where he could have done better.”

If he is being completely honest the Liverpool manager could have done better too, especially when giving the Sterling story fresh legs by claiming his player had been “hung out to dry”. Rodgers denies ever using that expression, though he does admit to speaking to the journalist who wrote the story. “It is something that was made into a bigger issue than it should have been,” he said. “But it is in the past now. My only focus is getting Raheem’s confidence back up for the QPR game. I don’t think there will be an ongoing problem between him and Roy Hodgson. They will probably speak when they next meet and clear everything up.

“There is not a problem between Liverpool and England either. I do not want to be a barrier to England or any of the other national teams. I know that players want to play for their country, and I am proud when they do. I watched England play Estonia sitting in a bar on my own. Then I watched Slovakia and Spain because of Martin Skrtel and some of the other guys. I want them all to do well.”