Fernando Torres was stretchered off the field at El Riazor after taking a nasty knock to the head and falling head first into the ground when it seemed he had already been knocked out. The initial word is that he is in hospital in La Coruña and is stable.

The club has tweeted that Torres suffered a traumatic brain injury and will remain under observation in hospital for the night but is calm, conscious and speaking.

Diego Simeone said that he heard a noise on the bench and he does not know if it was his neck or not but he hopes the best for Torres and he will have more tests tomorrow. The club have released a statement (in Spanish) saying as much. They also thanked everyone for their concern.

The Spanish striker was surrounded immediately by players and medical staff as they tried to help the stricken player. He was eventually taken off the field with a neck brace keeping his head and neck in place but it was unclear as to whether he had regained consciousness or not.

Torres one of the best

Filipe Luis said that they had received word that Torres was stable in hospital but could not comment any further on the state of his teammate directly after the game. He said Torres was one of the best and Florin Andone said it was one of the scariest things he had ever seen on a football field.