Torres optimistic over World Cup despite surgery

Liverpool’s Spanish striker Fernando Torres is confident that he will to recover from knee surgery in time for the World Cup in South Africa.

“The World Cup is the most important thing right now. It has been four years of waiting and if the timelines for my recovery go according to plan I do not plan to miss it,” the 26-year-old wrote on his official website on Monday.

Torres underwent surgery on a torn cartilage in his right knee in Barcelona on Sunday which will sideline him for around six weeks, meaning he will miss the rest of the season with Liverpool and leaving him not much time to be fit for the start of the World Cup on June 11.

This is his second date with the surgeon’s knife this season as he had an operation on his knee in January which sidelined him for a month.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is due to announce his 23-man squad for the finals on May 19, before his side meets up for a training camp at Las Rozas, near Madrid, five days later.

Spain are then due to travel to Innsbruck, in Austria, for high-altitude training before travelling to South Africa in the first week of June.

Del Bosque must submit his final squad to FIFA by June 1. Spain?s opening match is against Switzerland on June 16.