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The answer from Danny Ings should probably come as no surprise.

"I'm obsessed with Iron Man".

Plenty of the youngsters listening - who had asked which superhero Ings would like to be sidekick for - will know that no Liverpool player has had to display Iron Man qualities like Ings over the last couple of years.

And now his chance has come.

Ings is speaking to the next generation of Liverpool fans, the year fives at Whitefield Primary School, not far off Breck Road and less than a mile from Anfield.

(Image: Handout)

He and team-mate Ben Woodburn are here to chat football and deliver signed pictures and free match tickets to deserving pupils as part of the Liverpool Red Neighbours programme. More then 50 tickets are given out to local schools for every home game, more than 1,000 through the season across 25 schools.

The impromptu version of You'll Never Walk Alone started by one pupil and continued by his class suggests the Reds won't be short of support in future years!

Ings tells the youngsters of his favourite food (roast dinners), his favourite actors (Jim Carrey and Ryan Reynolds), his favourite things to do (going to the cinema and dinner with friends) and his plans for his "other business" outside football, where he might end up after his boots are hung up.

"I print customised trainers, a lot of them being super heroes or portraits of people they love, so I'll probably be doing that after football," he explains to the kids.

(Image: Handout) (Image: Handout)

At 25 though, the superheroes will have to wait.

Ings could have a big say in the rest of a still potentially huge season for Liverpool.

Finally recovered from those two season-ending knee injuries which tested those Iron Man qualities to the limit, he now appears established as deputy to Roberto Firmino in the Liverpool forward line.

His recent opportunities have been from the bench - his appearance in the Merseyside derby against Everton was his first Premier League since May 2016 - but you suspect a start is not far around the corner.

(Image: John Powell/Liverpool FC)

He's just loving being back playing.

Two-and-a-half years after sealing a dream move from Burnley, he has made just five starts and 11 substitute appearances for the Reds.

Ings told the ECHO: "It's been a massive relief for me, I've been working so hard to get into the shape I'm in now and being back among the lads.

"Now I'm getting minutes on the pitch and being part of it, it's a huge moment for me and I'm just looking forward forward to the future."

Now he needs a goal to get up and running, his last for Liverpool's first team coming in Brendan Rodgers' final game at Goodison Park in the Merseyside derby back in October 2015.

A great first touch almost helped him create an equaliser in the defeat against Swansea while an untimely slip cost him when Alberto Moreno created an opportunity against West Brom in front of the Kop.

"As a striker I'd be a lot more worried if I was wasn't getting in those positions. The time I'd had on the pitch has been as a sub so you're trying to maximise that time and get as many chances as you can.

"I can almost sense and feel it's coming and the more minutes I get the better I'm going to feel and I'm sure I'm going to get that goal again. Confidence isn't an issue for me, the most pressure was getting back fit.

"Once I'm on the pitch and I've got players like Ben and everybody else around me I know there's going to be chances in those games and it's down to me to start taking them so I'm looking forward to the challenge."

A host of clubs were interested in taking Ings on loan during the January window but Jurgen Klopp not only resisted - letting Daniel Sturridge go to West Brom on loan instead - he suggested he'd have to be "unconscious" for anyone to be allowed to take Ings away from Anfield at that stage of the season.

How did Ings view the possibility of a loan, where playing time might have been increased?

"I just left it up to the manager. I just got my head down and was training hard ever day, doing my best. Everybody knows I wanted to be here, trying to give myself the best chance of being here.

"It was a great moment when I heard the manager say that, it gives me confidence going into the next few weeks."

Liverpool's former Southampton players have been a big part of the discussions leading up to Sunday's game but it is Ings who is really going home.

He grew up in the area although it was at nearby Bournemouth where his football career really flourished.

He'll have plenty of home support at St Mary's.

"It's my home town and I grew up watching them. I've played them a few times at Burnley and it's always a pleasure to go back and play in front of them.

"I'll have a lot of family there, lots of nieces and nephews are coming to the game so it would be good to hopefully get some minutes, we'll have to see how the game goes.

"We go there to win the game. They're a very strong team and we've got to go there 100% focused.

"Teams like that, with that much quality, can hurt you if you take them for granted but I'm sure the manager and coaching staff won't let any of us do that and we'll go there and try to get the best result we can."

Ings is looking forward to a possible Champions League debut on Wednesday as the Reds travel to Porto though he's wary of taking his eye off his trip back home to the south coast.

"I'm yet to play in the Champions League but when that music comes on the feel of it is a special occasions for any football player.

"But for us it's important that we don't take our focus away from the next game because teams like Southampton can punish you if you do."

Lots of Liverpool players will be making a return on Sunday but no-one would relish a goal more than a man who has returned from more than most.

Liverpool's very own Iron Man.