Rafa Benitez has claimed Fernando Torres suffers more hamstring injuries on international duty than he does with Liverpool.
The Reds' star striker limped out of Spain's World Cup qualifier against Belgium on Wednesday night after just 17 minutes, with scans confirming that he faces up to two weeks on the sidelines.
Torres will now miss the UEFA Champions League meeting against his former club Atletico Madrid, plus the Premier League clashes with Wigan and Chelsea.
Benitez has already made it clear that he feels the international calendar is too busy, and has suggested a two-tier qualification system for the major tournaments to reduce the number of matches played by the leading nations.
The Spaniard believes that the demands placed on Torres by his country lead to inevitable injury problems.
Benitez said: "If you have a lot of players playing a lot of games then they are more at risk than the others.
"You want to keep your key players. Torres was playing well, he was scoring goals, he is really important to us. To lose a player like him for three or four games is a big problem for us.
"He has had three hamstring injuries with the Spanish national team so it is something that we need to analyse
"With us it is OK. He has had one (injury) in one year and a half. With the Spanish team, three times, so we need to check why.
"You know my ideas about the internationals, so I am really disappointed.
"For me he is playing too many games. It would be easier to keep him here. It's the same with the other players."
Fellow forward Ryan Babel sprained his ankle while playing for Holland against Norway and is set to miss out against Wigan to further increase Benitez's anger.
He added: "We lost Babel and Torres. For me, there are too many games, it is not necessary.
"We have a squad, we have to use all the players. But you don't want to lose any players, especially when they are playing away in some games that are not really important for the level of their teams.
"Instead of two games, one of them normally against a country that is not of the standard that you consider to be the maximum level, I think we can avoid this with better selection."
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