It was a Liverpool career that had more than its fair share of bumps in the road.
The Reds' decision to pluck Danny Ings from Burnley in the summer of 2015 was initially completed with the clubs failing to agree on a transfer fee.
After watching him net 11 for the Clarets the season previous, Rodgers - in what would be his final summer as Reds manager - swooped and ensured Ings remained a Premier League player.
"Burnley Football Club has rejected an offer made by Liverpool, but will continue to have dialogue with the club in order to reach a resolution over the fee," read a statement from the Lancashire club in June 2015.
It was an impasse that would rumble on and Ings encountered much choppier water once he began his Anfield voyage later that year.
Jurgen Klopp's very first training session as Liverpool boss coincided with Ings snapping his cruciate ligaments, leaving the recently-capped England international with a mountain to climb before he even thought about catching his new manager's eye.
It was an arduous road to recovery for the likeable Ings. Long, lonely hours in the gym were propped up by the thought of eventually forcing his way into a top club under one of Europe's brightest coaches.
Ings, as he would be forced to do again, eventually fought his back into the fold, making his first Anfield appearance in more than a year in a 2-1 win over Spurs in the League Cup in October 2016.
He replaced Divock Origi on 68 minutes to a rapturous applause from the home crowd as he displayed his trademark energy with a lively cameo.
It would be a short-lived return however as the desperately unlucky forward broke down once more; this time damaging cartilage to his other knee.
F**cked, s**t and scared - What Man City's Pep Guardiola has said about Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp
It was initially feared the problem would sideline him for another nine months, but Ings somehow managed to pick himself up off the floor and get back to it.
"To say we are gutted would be an understatement," admitted Klopp. "He is such a great boy and has worked so hard that he deserves better luck than this."
He retained an enthusiastic attitude and stomach for the fight, ensuring his positive mental attitude kept him on track for more work on fitness.
The striker vowed to swim the equivalent of the English Channel in Melwood’s 20-metre pool, and despite only being able to use his upper body, Ings clocked up the 21 miles by covering nearly 1,700 lengths over the course of four months.
It was this dedication and determination that endeared him to the club and its staff during his long periods of convalescence across two spells at Melwood.
“It's been a long road,” Ings later told the ECHO. “A long, tough road but I'm past that now, I'm really past that now. I'm in the shape of my life, I'm feeling good, I'm happy and to be around the lads every day is great."
This time, he was able to virtually stay clear of injury. A spate of performances of the Under-23s let everyone connected to the club know he was ready for first-team action once more.
Ings made his second long-awaited comeback as a substitute in a Carabao Cup defeat at Leicester in September 2017 before being made to wait until the following April for his maiden start of the season.
Liverpool's successful summer transfer trend - and who they could target next
The thought of playing in a Merseyside derby will have been a key reason behind Ings' desire to move to Anfield in the summer of 2015, but by the time he returned to action in April 2018, the Reds had moved on, considerably.
During Ings' two periods of lengthy rehabilitation, Klopp had turned an underachieving squad into one of Europe's finest.
Ings was forced to settle for bit-part roles, playing understudy to Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino as the Reds marched to the Champions League final at an unrelenting pace.
Virgil van Dijk has kept Liverpool in the title race - but are Jurgen Klopp's side lucky?
And by the time the summer transfer window came around, the writing was firmly on the wall.
Divock Origi and Daniel Sturridge's respective returns from loan spells increased competition for places and Ings was left with a difficult decision to accept a loan move to Southampton on deadline day last year.
Happily, it is one that has worked out for both player and club so far.
In his 20 appearances for the Saints to date, the one-time England forward has netted eight times and is in-line to pocket his parent club a sizable profit at £20m this summer.
And as he sits in the St Mary's stands for Friday's visit of a Liverpool team aiming to regain top spot in the Premier League in April, he may be forgiven for thinking what might have been.
Ings will leave Anfield permanently this summer with the well-wishes of everyone at the club who watched him fight back twice from career-threatening injuries.
It was a move that just wasn't to be.
