Raheem Sterling: A victim of his own talent?

Sterling has played in every game this season

Raheem Sterling has faced criticism from some quarters after Roy Hodgson revealed the England starlet had asked not to start against Estonia due to tiredness. But Ralph Ellis suggests cutting the Liverpool forward some slack...

You feeling tired this morning? Had a busy day doing jobs about the house? Maybe after playing Sunday morning football? Then the wind and rain kept you awake all night until the alarm went at 6.30 to get up in the dark and get ready for work?

Bet you'd like to be able to tell your boss you don't quite fancy it today. Not at your best. Perhaps he could get somebody else to do your job and you'll sit around in case something goes wrong and you're needed.

That's basically how it was for Raheem Sterling, and the Liverpool youngster is getting hammered as a result.

Tired? How can a 19-year-old feel too tired to want to play for England? How does that work when Gareth Bale will turn out for Wales against Cyprus tonight, despite a niggling back injury that his Real Madrid paymasters would far rather he rested? (And the Real Madrid megastar is still odds-on at 1.758/11 to score).

Before you start to get too tough on Sterling, though, there's another question that needs answering. What does it say about both his club and his country when both of them are so dependent on a kid who is still a teenager?

It was only when the Liverpool youngster did come on that England found a way through Estonia's stubborn defence. Wayne Rooney's free kick was brilliant, but it was Sterling's ability to twist and turn on the edge of the box that won the opportunity.

With Liverpool he's become essential, played in every game this season including 120 minutes of the Capital One Cup tie against Middlesbrough that went to that epic penalty shoot-out. With Luis Suarez gone, and with Daniel Sturridge injured, Sterling has become the go-to man for Brendan Rodgers. On the only occasion the Reds manager did try to rest his star man, he found himself bringing him off the bench with 28 minutes to go in a failed attempt to save him from defeat at home to Aston Villa.

Rodgers has spent two years nursing the slimly built youngster into the physical demands of the Premier League, but now it seems with the added pressure of losing the goals that Suarez brought to his team, the wraps are off.

Yet can it be right to put so much on the shoulders of a boy who won't reach his 20th birthday until December? Liverpool are now odds against at 2.186/5 to achieve a top four finish this season, and that suggests the debate about Sterling's physical condition that started in Tallinn won't go away all season.

He's got to contend with the Champions League pressures too. After Sunday's trip to Queens Park Rangers there's a big boys game with Real Madrid and Liverpool are around 4.03/1 to win that, even though it is at Anfield.

I was interested to see Rio Ferdinand's take on the issue on Twitter this morning. He praised Sterling for being brave enough to tell the truth about how he felt rather than soldier on regardless. Carlos Tevez, he said, would often sit out training because he was too tired before coming back buzzing on match day.

Sterling is in danger of becoming the victim of his own talent, too essential for both club and country for his physical condition to be managed properly. If he's flagged up already that he doesn't feel right, then not only Roy Hodgson and Brendan Rodgers need to listen, but maybe the rest of us need to cut the kid some slack too.