Fernando Torres has become Liverpool's latest high-profile casualty after suffering his fifth hamstring injury in 16 months and his manager Rafael Benitez has been very quick to lay the blame at the feet of the Spanish FA.
Benitez, a Spaniard himself, has criticised Vicente del Bosque, manager of the national side, for calling up his striker for the friendly with Chile last week.
Despite the injury being discovered after the Champions League win over Marseille on Wednesday, Benitez is of the opinion that lightning has struck twice after Torres sustained the same injury during Spain's World Cup qualifier with Belgium last month which saw him sidelined for five games for his club.
"He has been injured now three times while with the national team and it is something we have to analyse," Benitez said.
"We know they are doing something that is maybe not the best for the player."
Torres’ injury comes on the back of a turbulent time for relations between club and country. The age-old debate reared its ugly head once again as Steven Gerrard was forced to drive to Hertfordshire to be assessed by England coach Fabio Capello despite suffering a groin injury in Liverpool’s 2-0 over Bolton Wanderers 24 hours previous.
Arsenal’s Theo Walcott became the most notable casualty of the England call-up when he dislocated his shoulder on the eve of the friendly with Germany as he trained in the Olympiastadion.
The injury has seen Walcott sidelined for three months and Gunners’ boss Arsene Wenger, clearly incensed by the decision to call Walcott up for the game, believes that FIFA should mediate compensation packages paid to clubs for injuries sustained by their players whilst on international duty.
“There should be compensation, of course. I believe at the moment it is a subject studied by FIFA,” he said.
“There have been some agreements and the overall issue is about how the players can be paid by the club and play for somebody else. That is a basic way of thinking.
“That is why sometimes it happens that you do not see the player for three months and the clubs pay them. You have to find a reasonable agreement."
Despite summoning Gerrard to the England team hotel to verify the legitimacy of his injury, Capello saw fit to omit Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney from the squad after they were not named in Manchester United’s side for the 5-0 win over Stoke City. However, the pair featured in United’s next Premiership game away to Aston Villa the following week.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to rest his players, regardless of whether or not they were recovering from minor injuries, was a decision that paid dividends for him. It was not in his interest for the duo to feature in the game.
Diehard England supporters have taken issue with the win in Berlin being termed as a meaningless friendly despite ten players withdrawing due to injury.
With the increase in injuries sustained on international duty players should, to paraphrase John F Kennedy, ask not what they can do for their country but ask what their country can do for them.
