Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, has vowed to give Fernando Torres all the time he needs to regain full fitness rather than risk the Spain striker aggravating the persistent hamstring problem that has plagued his season.

Torres suffered his third hamstring injury of the campaign during Liverpool’s 1-0 win at home to Marseilles in the Champions League eight days ago, but while Benítez was hopeful that the striker would be out for no longer than three weeks, the manager is now refusing to put a timescale on the player’s comeback.

Although Torres, 24, is hoping to return in time for the busy festive schedule, the player and manager are desperate to ensure that he does not suffer of a recurrence of a problem that is becoming a serious concern by rushing back too soon.

Torres returned to Spain this week to visit Dr Ramón Cugat, a leading surgeon, in an effort to find a solution to a problem that has blighted him on five occasions over the past year. Torres’s training regime is thought to be under review, while such small details of his lifestyle as his choice of footwear and the way he walks are being examined in an attempt to get to the root of the problem.

He has missed eight games for Liverpool this season and is expected to be absent for the club’s next four matches, including the trip to Arsenal in the Barclays Premier League on December 21. Torres was accompanied on the trip to Barcelona to see Cugat by Fábio Aurélio, the Liverpool left back, who was examined in an effort to clear up a calf injury.

The FA will not take any formal action against Liverpool after their players warmed up for Monday’s match against West Ham United wearing T-shirts carrying a message of support for Michael Shields, a fan who was jailed for the attempted murder of a Bulgarian waiter while on holiday after Liverpool’s victory in the Champions’ League final in 2005.

An FA spokesman said: “We understand that Michael Shields’s case is a very emotive issue and one that many Liverpool players and fans feel strongly about.”