Fernando Torres delivered a huge boost to Spain’s (4/1 outright winners) hopes of leaving South Africa as World champions as he returned to training with the squad on Friday.
Torres endured a torrid Premier League campaign with Liverpool and suffered from a string of injuries that blighted his season from start to finish. The Spanish superstar has not played since mid-April when he underwent a knee operation which immediately put his participation in South Africa in doubt.
However, the former Atletico Madrid hitman is well ahead of schedule in his recovery from surgery and was able to return to light training on Friday and could now be set to start in the Iberians opener against Switzerland on June 16.
The atmosphere in the camp had been one of concern that two of their star players might have to miss the tournament completely. However, things have improved dramatically in recent days as Cesc Fabregas made it through a friendly match and now Torres’ return to training has given the squad another lift. Defender Gerard Piqué said. “Fernando is an important player for us and hopefully he can be ready for the first World Cup match.”
Vicente Del Bosque had been experimenting with a variety of systems in preparation for life without his star striker, which included using Fabregas as an auxiliary second striker, but will now be able to put those away for a while yet.
Spain are understandably favourites at 1/18 to qualify from Group H and would be expected to do so in some style. The European champions face Switzerland first, before meeting minnows Honduras and finally South American qualifiers Chile.
There has been talk in the Spanish press about a race for the Golden Boot between Torres and Villa. The Liverpool striker is 14/1 to come away from the tournament as top goal scorer, with his Barcelona bound team-mate favourite at 9/1 to top the charts.
Spain are well fancied to lift the Jules Rimet trophy at Soccer City on 11 July and enter the tournament as favourites ahead of world ranked number one Brazil.