Monday 1 May 2017 12:58, UK
Daniel Sturridge is "not feeling the love" at Liverpool and is in for an "interesting" summer, Stuart Pearce has suggested.
The forward has been at Liverpool since January 2013 but has scored only twice in the Premier League this season and has not firmly established himself as a key squad member under Jurgen Klopp.
Sturridge missed last week's game at Crystal Palace with a hip problem, but returned to training during the week and is fit for selection for Liverpool's Monday Night Football clash with Watford on Monday.
"He [Sturridge] would probably want to know what's happening with him from his manager's [Klopp] point of view," Pearce said on Sky Sports News HQ.
"He's been in and out through injury. He's been in and out through form. You know he can score goals.
"I think he's the type of lad who needs to be loved a little bit and I'm not sure he's feeling the love at the moment at Liverpool and his future will be interesting come the summer."
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic recently confirmed an interest in Sturridge, though Pearce admits he thinks the striker will be looking elsewhere, should he leave the Reds.
"If he can get back on the pitch and score the odd goal between now and the end of the season, it might just sway the manager at Liverpool to keep him, if he feels as though his future's at the club," Pearce added on Premier League Daily.
"He can score goals, you know he can score goals, consistently he's done that all through his career both international and at club level, I'm sure there's always a taker for someone who's consistently going to score. Where that'll be I'm not sure.
"It depends in his and his agent's minds whether, with West Ham being mooted, whether he sees that beneath him at this moment in time.
"He'll be looking somewhere further up the food chain, which as the league stands at the moment would be Everton and above."
