Hamstring problems come back to haunt Chelsea's Costa
Chelsea striker Diego Costa suffered a hamstring injury and is likely to miss Spain’s Euro 2016 qualifier with Ukraine this coming Friday, according to Jose Mourinho.
Costa limped off with 15 minutes to play after scoring his team’s second goal in Chelsea’s 3-2 win at Hull City, and was replaced by Loic Remy, who scored the winner.
“A hamstring,” confirmed Chelsea’s manager. “We don’t know but when a striker is playing and the team needs a goal to win and with 15 minutes to go the striker comes out a guy with a lot of experience like he has with hamstring injuries and says it’s over for me, it’s over for him.”
The early part of the season saw Mourinho nurse Costa through a problem he brought with him from his days at Atletico Madrid. Costa limped out of last season’s Champions League final after just nine minutes before heading to London in a £32 million deal.
“He has this problem since he tried to play the Champions League final with Atletico and was injured again and again,” said Mourinho. “He has this fragility. We know his hamstring is not strong.
“He works hard during the week to compensate this weakness. He has 15 days without football with Chelsea, but if he’s injured he’s injured. We never cry with injured players.”
Mourinho denied that Costa will need surgery on what is becoming a long-term problem, saying Chelsea’s club doctor has advised against it. “Dr [Paco] Biosca is against knives, against surgery,” said Mourinho. “He’s all in favour of conservative work and collective work between medical department and fitness technical staff. And this is the direction, we believe.”
Costa will have to fly to Madrid on Monday to be checked out by the Spanish national team’s medical staff, who can okay his absence from the Ukraine game and the friendly with Netherlands that follows. Last October, Chelsea and the Spanish FA became embroiled in a row after Mourinho’s claim that Costa had suffered a further injury on international duty were refuted by officials.
In Costa’s place, Frenchman Remy scored the winner within two minutes of arriving on the KC Stadium field, and Mourinho admitted that the substitute perhaps deserves more opportunities. Every time he plays he’s there,” said Mourinho. “He probably deserves more than I gave him.
“There are not many times when a coach can feel he owes something to a player and with Remy that’s the case. I think I owe him something. Every time he plays he gave us a lot. I am happy for him. He never complained.”
Chelsea are six points clear at the top, with a game in hand on Manchester City and look set for the Premier League title.
“By winning you get what you deserve,” said Mourinho, after his team held off a two-goal Hull comeback. “The title race should be over. In normal conditions we should have eight, 10, 12 more points, but it’s unpredictable and the reality is a six-points lead is our best of the whole season.
“When we were eight clear we had 20 matches to go. We have a six-point lead, one match in hand, and eight matches to go to our opponents. They can make 24 points but I’m pretty confident. I believe in my players.”
This article originally appeared on ESPN FC
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
Feeds: ESPN staff
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
