EPL, Premiership, English Premier League

Fernando Torres was injured during Spain’s 2-1 World Cup Qualifying win against Belgium in Brussels. Torres limped off witha  hamstring injury only 16 minutes in compunding his earlier hamstring problems in September. Ryan Babel was also playing in World Cup Qualifyers and received an ankle injury during the Netherlands 1-0 win in Norway.

Benitez expressed his discontent with how many World Cup Qualifying games professional club players are required to play. He suggested that their should be 2 tiers to the qualifying games with stronger teams playing stronger teams and weaker teams only playing stronger teams once they have moved up. This would effectively minimize the number of games that teams would play. While I’m not sure if this is feasible, I do know that Liverpool will have some real challenges if Torres and Babel are not fit soon. In the next 10 days Liverpool will be playing Wigan, Chelsea, and a Champions League game against Atletico Madrid.

Xabi Alonso described the injuries as a real blow: “It is undoubtedly bad news. We have to wait and see what the tests say, but we do not stop now until around Christmas, and we have a big calendar coming up - we cannot let up. It is not the first time this has happened [to Torres] with the national side, and it is a blow to have an injury when he is in such a good streak of form.”

Torres is expected to be out for about 10 days while Babel’s injury recovery time has not been assessed yet.