Its is a critical week for Liverpool with games against Sunderland, Lyon and Manchester United and they will play at least the first game without stars Steven Gerrard AND Fernando Torres, who both have groin problems.
What upset Rafa the most was not only did his two best players pick up the injuries on international duty, but that they both stayed on with their respective countries, wrecking any hopes Liverpool had of treating them at Melwood and getting them fit for today’s trip to Sunderland.
Torres, 25, remained on the bench for Spain’s midweek win in Bosnia-Herzegovina after playing 55 minutes of the victory in Armenia four days earlier. It was the same story for Gerrard, 29, who limped out of England’s loss in Ukraine and missed the Belarus win
In his press conference on Friday Benitez said:
“When players go away if they have a small problem it can depend on the training sessions. In this case both were playing with us and after they went to the national teams, they got injured. I have my opinions on that but prefer to talk of Sunderland because it’s all I can do now. You can’t guarantee that with treatment for a full week they’d have been OK. They aren’t serious injuries but this is too early for them. We decided this morning that neither could play but both should be OK for Tuesday. Obviously that depends on how they recover plus the physio work. It’s difficult to say if they’d have had a better chance if they had come back.”
Benitez knows how big this week is saying:
“This week could be really important and it depends on the first game – that is crucial. But I have confidence in the quality of my squad.”
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