Brukner: He’s still another 3 or 4 weeks away from his peak

Liverpool’s Head Doctor Peter Brukner believes that Fernando Torres is still a month away from peak physical fitness. Speaking to Liverpoolfc.tv he said:

“He’s actually slightly ahead of schedule – he played a game earlier than we thought. He started off with a few minutes, then a few more minutes and then started the last couple of (Barclays 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.”

Brukner states he believes it will only be a short time before Fernando is back firing on all cylinders:

“I don’t think it will be too long before the old Fernando Torres is back – and I’m looking forward to that.Obviously Fernando had a bad run with injuries last season and through the World Cup. 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.”

The Australian believes the fitness programme they are putting him on should help the Spanish striker to stay fit:

“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.”