Rafa Benitez has admitted that Fernando Torres will be out until at least the New Year with a damaged hamstring.
The Spanish striker picked up the injury - his fifth in 18 months - during Liverpool's win over Marseille, but Benitez is pointing the finger at the training methods of his national side.
"We first said two to three weeks but do not want to put a time on it now," said Benitez. "He will come back when he is ready. We will not rush him back.
"We want to resolve this problem once and for all and we will make sure we do that.
"He has been injured now three times while with the national team and it is something we have to analyse.
"We knew they were doing something that is maybe not the best for the player."
Torres is likely to miss Premier League games against Blackburn, Hull, Arsenal, Bolton and Newcastle.
Your Comments
criminalz
"I am going to laugh so hard at the end of the season."
howlong
"Nicky, Nicky Nicky always the same comment with you, here's an idea try a different approach, try a different slant, think outside of your very limited bland box. I've read a few of your comments and its always liverpool playing the victim, someones elses fault at liverpool etc etc boring bland zzzzz please say something original for once. As for Johnoshea dude are you twelve?"
lylegorch
"'we will not rush him' not 'back in new year' 365!
We beat man utd without him, and seem to be OK without him so far, so WHEN he does come back...
Keane and Babel up front, with Kuyt and Ngog as options, or Keane up front with Babel,Gerrard and Kuyt just behind!"
seven_7s
"Ok all calm down. Going into xmas we need to cement our position at the top. So torres is injured, get well soon, but really we need to play like we do in europe with the determination to win. Champions league will have finished next week, the FA cup doesnt start till january, so we need to Knuckle down and treat every game in the league as if it was the Champions league final 2005."
torrestorres
"All you LFC NON supporters are just scared that Torres will soon be fully fit and doing what he does best, Scoring against you. All LFC fans know what el nino is capable of so Torres needs to take as much time as he needs to be 100% fit and get Anfield bouncing again. "
King_Kenny
"Kriisgay aint no tears rollin here kid, just a feeling that all the s**t thats written by opposin fans is gonna be rammed down their throats come may! Granted we'll miss Torres, we have for most of the season already, but we're top and not playin well! hopefully Babel gets his chance now and with the fixtures we've got over the next month i'm sure we'll still be top cum jan when El Nino will be back to fire us to glory!"
El_Nino_09
"Nick78447, do us all a favour and just f**K off. If anyone is reliant on Torres its Spain!"
ritchieboy
"Liverpool's title hopes are over, how will we cope without Torres...blah blah blah... come people, how many league games have we played? 15..Torres has only scored in 3 of those and been injured for most others..but we are still top of the league and it should be by more points. Also to say the system doesnt suit Keane, thats nonsense, if thats the case why is he getting these sitters?- the team must be doing something right!!! he just needs confidence- he is too good not to at some point. if we'd taken our chances everyone would be saying how well we played- we're just missing too many sitters. i see we got slated the other week for drawing at home to Fulham (who also got a 0-0 at villa park and beat arsenal so they are better than people give them credit for) even tho their keeper was man of the match- surely we did something right during the game, apart from scoring. Torres should now be fresh for the 2nd 1/2 of the season and it couldnt come at a better time than other next few fixtures as it could be a harder (not saying its going to be easy by anymeans). YNWA"
el_nino
"Great minds think alike Kel_s"
nick78447
"But he played for Liverpool with the injury and that has is what has made it worse. If Liverpool weren't so reliant on him, he would have been rested and the problem wouldn't have occured."
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