Fernando Torres needs a rest, says Chelsea boss Rafael Benítez

Rafael Benítez believes Fernando Torres could benefit from the imminent arrival of Demba Ba at Chelsea – because it will allow him to give the Spain striker a much-needed rest.

Torres is the Blues’ most-used outfield player this season and played the full 90 minutes in Chelsea’s shock 1-0 defeat by QPR at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.

Ba is set to undergo a medical at Chelsea on Thursday ahead of a £7m move to the west Londoners from Newcastle.

And Benítez is looking forward to having the option of resting Torres if he feels he needs to.

“Torres is one of two or three players who have been playing too many games in the last weeks or months,” said the Chelsea interim boss.

“We were trying to manage the squad every game with two or three players changing and it was going well, but against QPR it was not working.

“I don’t have any official information [about Demba Ba]. I know [Newcastle manager] Alan Pardew has been talking and there are a lot of rumours but officially he is not our player. If we can do the business I hope he could be available for the weekend.

“If you have another striker then if you need to play with two strikers then you can do that, or if you want to rest a striker you can do it.”