Liverpool's season will rely heavily on Daniel Sturridge's performance, says Jan Molby

Jan Molby claims Liverpool's season will rely heavily on Daniel Sturridge's performance for the remainder of this campaign.

The England international last featured for the Merseyside club during their away victory to Tottenham Hotspur in August. Since then he has been on the sidelines with multiple injuries and has missed his side's Champions League fixtures, where they have been knocked out of the competition.

In the former Chelsea striker's absence, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers fielded Raheem Sterling as the player to lead the Reds' attack after summer signing Mario Balotelli continued to struggle.

Rodgers revealed Sturridge is facing a late fitness test as the Reds take on West Ham United in the league clash at Anfield on Saturday. Molby claims the 25-year-old's return will lift Liverpool players and claims there will be exciting times, if Sturridge returns to his goal scoring form of last season.

"It will give everyone a massive boost to see Daniel Sturridge back in a Liverpool shirt at Anfield on Saturday," Molby told the Liverpool Echo.

"I expect him to come off the bench against West Ham and how Brendan Rodgers needs him to hit the ground running."

"If it takes Sturridge a month to get up to speed then our targets may prove beyond us this season. If he's able to quickly get back to the heights he hit last season then it's going to be an exciting time," he added.

Liverpool were knocked out of the Capital One Cup in the semifinals by Chelsea after the Reds lost the two-legged tie 2-1. Despite the defeat, Molby feels Rodgers' side are high on confidence.

"Sturridge is returning to a team high on confidence - despite the agony of defeat in their Capital One Cup semi-final with Chelsea on Tuesday night," the Dane said.

"It was a terrific game at Stamford Bridge with a really good tempo to it. That was us somewhere near our best. All that was lacking was someone to take responsibility to get us goals."

"It was so frustrating because a lot of our game was excellent. With the firepower we had last season we would have scored a couple."

"It looks like the players have taken a lot of belief from the recent run of results and that culminated in two top class performances against Chelsea," Molby concluded.