Liverpool medical chief:Torres will be back to his best Soon
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Medic feeling sense of professional satisfaction...
Liverpool's head of sports medicine and sports science, Dr Peter Brukner, has revealed that Fernando Torres is ahead of schedule in his recovery from an abductor injury.
The Spaniard has struggled with his fitness for a while now and it looked as if his latest injury, sustained during Spain's triumphant World Cup, might disrupt this season as well.
However, Torres scored the only goal of the game against West Bromwich Albion last week and Dr Brukner — who only joined the club during the summer — has been impressed with the player's progress.
"He's actually slightly ahead of schedule - he played a game earlier than we thought," Brukner told the club's official website.
"He started off with a few minutes, then a few more minutes and then started the last couple of [Premier League] games. But for the kick on the shin against West Brom he would have played the whole game.
"We're now at the stage where he can play the whole game. He's still not at his physical peak, that will take another three or four weeks, but I think you can see in every game he's played he's improving.
"I don't think it will be too long before the old Fernando Torres is back - and I'm looking forward to that."
Brukner also confirmed that the Spaniard's rehabilitation programme had been carefully planned by the club's medical and coaching staff in consultation with the player.
"Obviously Fernando had a bad run with injuries last season and through the World Cup," the Australian added.
"That was a challenge. We sat down with Fernando and we had a programme that would bring him up slowly, which really didn't involve playing too much in the first couple of games because there wasn't enough time.
"He came back to us 12 days before the first game having not done anything since the World Cup. He got injured in the final and had struggled through the whole World Cup, really.
"We were determined not to push him too hard because we didn't want him breaking down again, but on the other hand he is such an important asset and we wanted to get him back as quickly as possible.
"So we had to find a balance between wanting to get him out there [on the pitch] and a gradual progression.
"Again, we sat down with the physios, the fitness staff, the manager and Fernando and worked out a programme."
