Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge ruled out for ‘a few weeks’ with ankle injury

Daniel Sturridge will miss England’s friendly against Brazil on Sunday after the Liverpool striker suffered an ankle injury in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Republic of Ireland.

The 23-year-old was carried off on a stretcher in the first half at Wembley after picking up the problem in a challenge with Glenn Whelan.

“He’s not going to Brazil, which is very sad for us,” said England manager Roy Hodgson.

“He had a good start and we were very sad to lose him. He hadn’t played for a while and was carrying a slight injury.

“I fear it will keep him out for a few weeks but we don’t think it’s a fracture.”

Despite watching his side be held to a draw in north London as Frank Lampard cancelled out Shane Long’s opener, Hodgson insisted that he was satisfied with the overall display from the Three Lions.

“I was very pleased with the second half performance, we had sufficient dominance and goal chances to win the game but we must give credit to the Irish goalkeeper,” he continued.

“I can’t complain about anything we did today. They scored a good goal but it was the only time they looked like scoring.

“We were probing, trying all sorts of ways of getting around them. The important victories are the ones in qualifying and I certainly feel a lot better after this match than after our previous one.”