AQUILANI BOOST FOR REDS
Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani has completely recovered from the ankle problem which hampered his first season at Anfield, according to the club's new medical chief.The Italian had to wait more than two months for his Reds debut following his £20million move from Roma last year and then endured an indifferent campaign.
The 25-year-old is now back with the club for pre-season training and has already made a positive impression on newly-appointed head of sports medicine and sports science Peter Brukner.
Brukner told LFC Weekly magazine: "Alberto's ankle, which was a problem last year, is now 100% healed.
"He has been training and has looked very sharp. He'll have to keep working on his injury prevention programme and if he does, I'm sure the supporters will see the best of him because last season was very frustrating for him injury-wise."Brukner's next task is to assess the fitness of star striker Fernando Torres, who pulled up with an adductor injury in Sunday's World Cup final in South Africa.
Torres has now returned to Madrid with the rest of the victorious Spain squad and Liverpool staff are to fly out to meet him this week.
The 26-year-old is due to have a scan before beginning his summer break.
Torres has been plagued by injury in recent months. He struggled with a groin problem before Christmas and his domestic season ended prematurely after two knee operations in the space of four months.
He returned to action at the World Cup but looked well short of match sharpness throughout the whole tournament and failed to score.
Torres has been linked with big-money moves away from Anfield this summer but his latest injury may go some way to quelling speculation about his future.
Brukner is generally pleased with the health of the squad but the group is only coming back together slowly because of varying lengths of involvement at the World Cup.
"Staggering pre-season presents a challenge," he said. "I'm guessing that the World Cup guys will be pretty fit anyway.
"You don't lose a lot in three weeks and they've all been in contact with us to speak about their programme over that period."
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