Torres, who continues to be hampered by a sportsman’s hernia, failed a fitness test to recover in time for the visit to Goodison.

Benitez will monitor the striker’s fitness ahead of Saturday’s trip to Blackburn Rovers but admits the Spain international has yet to complete his initial course of treatment.

“Fernando is close, but he still has some pain,” said the Liverpool manager. “We now have a week to work with him and for the physios to try to get him fit to play.

“We will monitor this every day and then decide. But we do not want to take any risks with him now, he needed three weeks of treatment and that is not fully completed yet.

“There is no deadline. We will have to decide after we have watched him working this week.”

Meanwhile, Javier Mascherano believes he should be credited with the opening strike in the Merseyside derby despite it going down as a Joseph Yobo own goal.

He said: “I think it’s my goal because I tried to score with the shot. “It was a really important moment for me because I want to do my best.

“This season some people have criticised my shooting but I am trying hard to improve it and I am happy.”