'Blood was pouring out my boot' - Ferdinand recalls painful Torres battle

The Manchester United legend, alongside his long-time centre-back partner Nemanja Vidic, had plenty of battles with the Spanish striker across his spells for Liverpool and Chelsea.

He scored four goals against the Red Devils in 14 Premier League matches against them, with three of those coming in just six Liverpool appearances.

Ferdinand recalled the battles he had with Torres, including one that required half-time stitches.

"Torres was a great player, by the way. He scored some mad goals," Ferdinand said on his FIVE YouTube show.

"Me and him had good battles. He could look after himself. He stamped on my foot and I had about six stitches at half time.

"There was blood pouring out of my boot and everything. The ball wasn't even around us, he just stamped on my foot."

Torres caused plenty of problems for his centre-back partner Vidic while at Man United, and Ferdinand previously explained how the Serbian defender struggled against the striker.

Ferdinand told The Beautiful Game Podcast: "First of all, it's the best partnership ever in Premier League history.

"Trust me. Listen, strikers were playing out on the wings sometimes because they didn't want to come up against us, it was mad!

"There's always going to be that one player in your career who's difficult. He might not be the best player on the planet, but his style is made to hurt your style. And Torres might have just been that for Nemanja.

"He's someone he found difficult to play against. And he's probably the only player I've seen consistently give Vida a hard time, and he got sent off in a couple of the games didn't he, early on in the games.

"But listen, Torres was a great player and when he was in his pomp when he was at Liverpool, he was one of the best strikers about. He was a devastating striker. But with me one-v-one, he didn't cause me any problems if I'm honest."