Torres reveals injury influence in goal against United

Fernando Torres revealed, his goal against rivals United was influenced by the pain levels of his groin injury.

Torres was sidelined from Liverpool’s line-up ever since he sustained a groin injury at the defeat match in Chelsea early this month. Coach Rafael Benítez however was not confident about introducing the striker as his fitness was at stake and confirmed his appearance against Manchester United only minutes before the match at Anfield.

Torres admits that his ball that went past Van Der Sar, instead of making an easy escape from the troubled Ferdinand, bringing in a vital change for Liverpool was infact the result of pain and stress in his adductor muscle.

Torres said; “I feel a bit of pain when I shoot across goal, so I could only shoot towards the near post. It was the only thing I could do!”

“I wasn’t really at my best. We knew before the game I couldn’t play to 100 per cent because I had some pain in some actions, but in games like this, the pain doesn’t matter.

We knew it was going to be a risk and I felt some pain in some of the movements that I made beforehand but, during the game, it was OK.”

“I just wanted to play so much. When the team is losing and not playing well, it is so hard to watch and you just want to help. I was not 100 per cent fit but I wanted to play and it was worth it.”

However, Benitez has released Torres for the Carling Cup tie at Arsenal on Wednesday and confirmed his return against Fulham on Saturday.

Commenting about his team’s next Premier League fixture, he said, “When you win against United it is always a nice day. We knew it was a massive game, as we needed to win to keep our chances in the title race.

We had to win and we did it. We are in the race again now. Now we have a bit of confidence, but we have to keep it going.

We have to be focused for Fulham on Saturday, but we feel like a strong team again because we are all working together like in the past.

When we play as a unit, we can beat anyone, so we need to be strong and focus on our possibilities.

And it doesn’t matter who the players are. We could beat everyone without me, Stevie [Gerrard], Dirk [Kuyt] or Yossi [Benayoun].

Liverpool has a fantastic team and we have to show everyone that.”