Liverpool captain James Milner says that he expects his club teammate Daniel Sturridge to come back strongly when he appears for the England national team after almost 600 days of absence due to injury.

The assumption is that the long time on the sidelines will have taken away some of the edge from his game, but Milner has backed his club teammate to start scoring straightaway. Sturridge is expected to be back for the friendly against Netherlands. He was unavailable for the 3-2 win against Germany, which once again provided another striking option for manager Roy Hodgson.

Newcomer Jamie Vardy impressed by scoring the first goal of his international career against one of England’s biggest rivals, Germany. The Leicester City striker is already on course to overtaking Sturridge when it comes to the England caps. Despite making his debut for England in 2011, Sturridge has featured in only 16 matches for the national team. In the last two campaigns, Sturridge has failed to make more than 20 appearances in all competitions. Yet, his goalscoring touch appears to be retained within the 26-year-old. He has an impressive conversion ratio from these games. This appears to be the primary reason behind Hodgson being to take a chance on the player.

"When you have been out for such a long time, the one thing you see is how long it takes someone to get back up to speed. It might take weeks, it might take months. For him it seems to take a warm up and then he is straight out there and he is chopping left and right, his touch is there, his ability in front of goal.For me there is no change at all. When you get back, you want to do everything to stay there," said Milner ahead of the friendly with Netherlands.