Rafa urges caution over Torres

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez is confident Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque will be cautious with Fernando Torres if he is called up to face France.

The sides meet next week in Paris and Torres is expected to be included in Del Bosque's squad after making a successful return to action at the weekend following knee surgery.

Torres made a quicker than expected return as a late substitute in Sunday's goalless draw with Manchester City after five weeks out with a knee problem.

Benitez is expected to restrict Torres to a bench role for Thursday's Europa League clash with Unirea Urziceni, with the striker possibly starting the weekend Premier League clash with Blackburn.

Torres has picked up three injuries in the last two years while on international duty and despite rumours of strained relations with the Spanish coaching team, Benitez insists he has no problems with any of the Spain set-up having worked with a number of them during his time at Real Madrid.

"Fernando is our player, working with our physios, but we have a good relation­ship with Fernando Hierro [Spain's technical director], Del Bosque and Javier Minano [the fitness coach]," said Benitez.

"When people try to create a mess between Spain and us, remember that Del Bosque was the academy ­director at Real when I was an academy coach and I was his assistant for the first team. We have a really good relationship.

"His fitness coach was my fitness coach in the Under-18s and the second team. He is my friend. Hierro was in the first team when I was assistant at Real and we had a very good relationship.

"If I defend my players, it is because I have to, but we have very good communication with Spain."

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