Liverpool striker Fernando Torres is hopeful he will be fit for the club’s crucial clashes in Europe and at home in the next 10 days. The Spaniard has also dismissed his manager’s suggestion that his injuries have cost Liverpool this season.

The Reds take on Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie looking to progress with a 1-0 advantage from the first leg at the Bernabeu.

They then face Manchester United in the Premier League in a match they have to win to have any hope of catching their bitter north-west rivals.

Torres has not played since he suffered an ankle injury in that Madrid victory, but revealed tonight he is optimistic about returning next week.

“I hope to be available for both of the matches because they will be two great games,” he said in a webchat on his personal site fernando9torres.com. “The ankle injury has been giving me some trouble and the recovery process is taking longer than I hoped.

“However, I am quite optimistic that I will be ready for the match versus Real Madrid, and if the ankle holds out, I will also be at Old Trafford.”

Rafael Benitez pointed to his absence as the reason Liverpool’s challenge has faded of late, but the striker doesn’t see it like that.

“I don’t think that I’m to blame for the injuries, it forms part of the game,” he said. “I have suffered three muscular injuries during the first three months of the competition, and now I have picked up an ankle injury.

“I don’t think that my injury should be considered as a reason for Liverpool not winning the league.

“Although following a couple of poor results we have lost touch with Manchester United at the top, the team has done well this season. The league though is still alive, but Man United are looking strong and they are not dropping points.”

The Spain has in the past warned if Benitez goes he won’t be far behind but he appears to have changed that stance, though he hopes his manager will sign a new deal soon.

“My future is tied with Liverpool, because I still have four years left to run on my contract,” he added. “Therefore, should Rafa leave, I will stay on and fulfil my contract with the club. My wish is that Rafa extends his contract with Liverpool.

“I cannot think about how a possible departure might affect me, because it hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t like wasting time thinking about ifs and buts.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s owners have suffered a blow in their efforts to sell the club to a Kuwaiti investment consortium after a spokesman for the potential buyers said negotiations were “going really badly”.

Abdulla Al-Sager says the £500million value put on the club by American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett is too high.

Al-Sager, one of the possible investors in the consortium headed by Kuwait’s Al-Kharafi family, told Bloomberg: “Things are going really badly, because they are asking for too much.

“I don’t think anything will happen unless we get a better price.”

The consortium is now likely to play a waiting game until July when Hicks and Gillett have to see if they can refinance Liverpool’s £300million debts.

If they cannot, then they may be forced to sell for a much lower price.

Liverpool have also been in talks about a sale with another investment group in the Middle East and one in the US.

It is understood Hicks would ideally like to find an investment partner to buy Gillett’s stake and allow him to remain in control.