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RAFAEL BENITEZ has admitted he had no option but to push Fernando Torres through the pain barrier in the defeat at Fulham and he now acknowledges the striker is a serious doubt for the vital Champions League match away to Lyon on Wednesday night.

Benitez had agonised, as he had done before the Manchester United game the previous weekend, over whether to start with Torres or use him as a second-half substitute against Fulham and he said that injury problems elsewhere in his squad had forced his hand. The manager also suggested inquests would potentially have been stoked by Torres’s omission from the starting line-up.