John Barnes has advised Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp to trust Daniel Sturridge regarding his own fitness.

Sturridge has missed out a large portion of matches for Liverpool over the past few months due to a host of injuries but manager Klopp has not been left too impressed regarding the striker's attitude in his recovery process.

Sturridge has recently made a return to full fitness and club legend Barnes believes that Klopp, as well as any outsiders who criticise the 26-year-old, should trust the striker regarding his own injury assessment.

Barnes told the Liverpool Echo: "I would always do that with Daniel. It's maybe not a typical way of looking at things, but with Daniel's history with injuries we have to leave it up to him to tell us when he feels he's ready to play. I believe he's hungry enough. He's a young boy who wants to play football. But he has to do it for himself.

"If he says he's injured, then he's injured. We can't tell him otherwise. Daniel isn't necessarily different to anybody else, but football is different now. Phil Neal played for six years without missing a game in the 1970s and 80s, but he'd have missed a game in the modern era, for certain.

"In the old days the physio and the manager would maybe say 'do you want to give it a go? But in Daniel's case you have to leave it up to him. You have to trust him."