Beware danger of wounded Torres

Fernando Torres has been through just about everything this season but his latest setback is the final insult — the relief he felt at squeezing into Spain’s Euro 2012 squad has now turned to frustration at the realisation that his international manager may not play with strikers at all this tournament.

It wasn’t so long ago that the combination of Torres and David Villa was hailed as potentially the best striking partnership in the world, prompting Liverpool to launch an expensive and eventually fruitless campaign to persuade Villa to join his international teammate at Anfield. But things have changed.

Villa is injured and unavailable — while Torres has been deeply affected, both psychologically and physically, by an emotionally draining year at Chelsea that has seen him labelled a £50m flop and a player no longer able to function at the very top level.