London 2012: Chelsea star Sturridge still not over illness

Chelsea striker Daniel Sturridge wants to help guide Team GB into the knock-out stages of the Olympics but admits he is yet to fully recover from a pre-tournament meningitis scare.

Group A table-toppers Great Britain will qualify for quarter finals if they avoid defeat against Uruguay in tonight’s final pool game at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

It will match their female counterparts who reached the last eight stage by shocking Brazil 1-0 in front of a 70,584 record crowd for a British women’s game at Wembley last night to top their group.

Tonight’s tussle will be the third game in six days for Stuart Pearce’s men, having begun with a 1-1 draw against Senegal on the eve of the London 2012 Games’ opening ceremony.

Sturridge was dropped for Wednesday’s game against the UAE but came on as a substitute to net an outstanding goal in the 3-1 victory at Wembley.

The 23-year-old Blues hitman hopes that will be enough to help him regain his place in the starting line-up to face the likes of Liverpool striker Luis Suarez and Napoli’s Edison Cavani, but he knows how close he came to missing out.

“I am getting there but I am still not 100 per cent,” Sturridge said.

“Basically I am a week behind the rest of the lads in terms of fitness because they had a week of pre-season when I was at my club.

“Also I have lost a bit of weight but I am getting fitter.

“This was the centre-piece of my summer and I was more than a bit concerned about missing it.

“It was the right stage to show what I am capable of.

“A week after contracting meningitis, I was unsure whether I would be coming or not.

“At that stage I certainly felt worse than I thought I would.

“Thankfully, as time went on I improved, although there were only a couple of days to go before we made the decision to go for it.”