Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers: Lucas Leiva will hit top form next season

Brendan Rodgers believes Liverpool will not see the best of Lucas Leiva until next season as the Brazilian continues his recovery from a series of injuries.

The 24-year-old has been ever-present in Rodgers’s side since returning to first-team action in December after suffering a thigh problem in a 2-2 draw with Manchester City at the start of the season.

It has been a tumultuous 18 months for Lucas, who missed most of the 2011-12 campaign due to a knee ligament injury, and Rodgers says that the midfielder is slowly edging back to top form.

“I’ve been delighted with Lucas,” Rodgers told the Liverpool Echo.

“We were very wary of the fact he had had a serious knee injury last season, and then obviously another problem on top of that this season.

“It was important for the team to get him back, but it was important for him that we did so at the right pace and that we paced his recovery right.

“It is a big credit to him as a professional. He has worked so hard, and his attitude and his application has been first class. He deserves every praise for the way he has conducted himself.

“I still believe, having worked with these kind of injuries in the past, that it won’t be until the summer, and beyond even, that we see him back at full level.”

Lucas has scored six goals in 206 appearances for the Reds after completing a £5m move to Anfield from Gremio in 2007.