Diego Costa Injury Woes – A Concern For Chelsea

In the press conference after the game against Schalke, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho dismissed rumours that he put Costa on the bench to save him for the Manchester City clash on Sunday.

“…it was not to protect for the game Sunday, it was because he was not in a position to start the game. Now we have a problem and now we have to resolve the problem best we can”. – Jose Mourinho on Wednesday.

As Mourinho himself has confirmed, Chelsea does have a problem and it is a problem they have to resolve as their season might depend on it.  The game on Wednesday, showed what Chelsea are without the effectiveness of a starting forward.

The coaching staff has to work closely with the team’s medical staff to keep the 32million pounds striker as fit as possible, if Chelsea is to fulfil the ambitions they have set this season.

Many Chelsea fans seem to be judging to Costa’s injury plagued time at Atletico Madrid and seem to be blaming the Spanish club for selling them an injury prone player. The Chelsea Boss on the other hand has a different view on the matter;

“Costa has a problem…but he came to us from Atletico completely fine. He had a problem again with the national team, not with us“

Despite the Blues Boss seemingly clearing Atletico of any wrong doing, it seems pretty obvious that Costa was sold to Chelsea with a chronic muscle strain problem, which came about from playing him in all competitions, even while David Villa was at the club. Diego Simeone decided to bench Villa any chance he got and when he eventually let him play, preferred to stick him on the wings.

If any team can manage the situation, its Chelsea whose medical staff headed by Doctor Eva Carneiro is arguably the best in the league. The club has been handling the Spaniard well thus far, as they removed him with 10 minutes to go in the last league game despite planning not to play him in Wednesday’s clash.

Rotation of the Spaniard with his colleagues in the striking position will be the key to his career in England. Allowing Remy and Drogba to exclusively prosecute both FA cup and Capital one cup games and also taking the former FC Braga man out of games already done and dusted, with minutes left on the clock, will be beneficial.

Jose seems to also realize this;

“He was not in condition to play. Sunday we believe he is, Next week against Bolton in the Capital one cup for sure he isn’t. We have to manage the situation until he’s completely fine”

Chelsea fans will be delighted with this statement that shows that their manager is aware of the situation and has carefully thought out plans to manage it. They will also be hoping that Loic Remy is better at his job than Drogba currently is, as they will need a more competent forward than the one they watched on Wednesday, considering the length of time Diego Costa might be out with injury this season.