ROY HODGSON’S plea for Fernando Torres to be spared from international duty looks set to be turned down.

The Liverpool manager believes the striker, who scored a stunning winner against West Brom yesterday, would be better off spending the next 10 days at Melwood as he returns to full fitness following knee and groin injuries.

However, Spanish boss Vicente Del Bosque has named Torres in his 21-man squad for Friday’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Liechtenstein and next Tuesday’s friendly away to Argentina.

Hodgson said: “It would be good if Del Bosque would look kindly on him and us. There’s no doubt that he would prosper from two weeks of quite hard training here, continuing his pre-season work really.

“If he goes there and plays matches, it is quite a different type of training and preparation. It’s not really what he requires at this moment in time.

“Also we want to keep an eye on the knee that caused him problems before and throughout the World Cup.

“Being careful with him is an absolute necessity. If we can keep him on this fitness programme, he will get stronger and fitter and then it’s just down to match practice.

“The more work our sports science people can do with him to build him up, the better it will be for his long-term future. If we are unable to do that because he is asked to play so many matches in this early part, it’s going to affect us negatively.

“We will propose what we think is the best option for him. But we can’t say he isn’t fit to play because he played 85 minutes today.”