Rafa Benitez has received some tiny modicum of relief from the reds injury crisis with confirmation that neither Gerrard or Torres will be called up for the forthcoming international friendlies.
England’s team was announced yesterday and featured only Glen Johnson for the reds, in an international break that will see England face Brazil in a friendly in Dubai.
Both Lucas Leiva and Fabio Aurelio (in his first call up) are in the Brazilian squad for the game.
Today – the Spain squad was announced and although Torres was looking forward to facing Argentina at his old Atletico Madrid ground, the Vicente Calderon, common sense has prevailed and Spain have left him to attempt to recover from his muscle injury.
It is in Spain’s interest that the striker is nurtured as much as possible with a World Cup campaign ahead that Spain will feel they have a real chance of winning.
Both Gerrard and Torres picked up their injuries whilst on international duty last time around and have been either unavailable or heavily unfit for most of the reds games in October which was a disappointing month for the reds.
Vincent Del Bosque, the Spanish coach said:
‘We spoke to him (Torres), we spoke to Rafa Benitez and we came to the conclusion it’s better not to force him.
We don’t want to push him, we want him to recover.’
Pepe Reina is Liverpool’s only representative in the Spanish squad.
