Fresh Pard luck story for Sturridge

IF ALAN PARDEW was looking for omens in his bid to keep rock-bottom West Brom up, the sight of Daniel Sturridge limping off after just three minutes was a very bad one.

The Baggies boss is rightly proud of his track record with strikers and they tend to start well under him.

But things have not gone to plan for the luckless Sturridge.

He missed a dream chance to score on his debut at Manchester City, lost on his first start at home to Southampton and his injury jinx struck again at Chelsea.

Something went ping in his right leg as he attempted a simple pass and his night was over.

A premature trudge to the touchline for

Sturridge (right), who went down the tunnel shaking his head, was sadly all too familiar.

It was impossible not to feel sorry for him, especially with England chief Gareth Southgate in the Stamford Bridge crowd.

He joined West Brom in January to play the regular football which injuries never allowed at Liverpool, aiming to revive World Cup hopes.

The idea was that Sturridge would add the goals that Albion haven’t scored enough of previously and fire them to the Great Escape part two.

That he could follow in the footsteps of the likes of Rickie Lambert, Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse and Christian Benteke who all made instant impacts after being signed by Pardew at his previous clubs.

In the build-up, Pardew highlighted the fact that Sturridge was “unaffected” by West Brom’s previous difficulties which would make him “fresh”.

Cruelly, last night, he was dogged once again by his own.