Jose Mourinho thinks Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is the man to blame for Diego Costa's recent injury troubles.
Costa began the season in prolific fashion, scoring nine goals in
seven matches, but he has missed Chelsea's last three fixtures because
of a persistent hamstring injury.
The former Atletico Madrid man had also been suffering from a cold in
the build-up to Sunday's match against Manchester United, but Mourinho
revealed it was injury, rather than illness that ruled the 32 million
pounds signing out of the match at Old Trafford.
The striker has been troubled by the hamstring problem for some time,
but Mourinho believes it was exacerbated by Spain coach Del Bosque, who
fielded the 26-year-old for back-to-back games against Slovakia and
Luxembourg at the start of October.
"The virus is fine," the Chelsea manager said. "It was hard, he had
to go to the hospital and obviously it doesn't help him to recover from
his injury. But he didn't play on Sunday because of the injury, not
because of the virus.
"Diego has the hamstring [problem] because he played two matches in three days when he was not with us."
Mourinho voiced his concern over a lack of communication with Del
Bosque and other national coaches earlier this month and the problem
still clearly concerns him.
When asked whether he hoped Costa's injury problems were now over,
Mourinho replied: "But he still has [to play for] the national team in
November!"
For the immediate future, Mourinho looks as though he will be able to depend on the striker.
"I think so," replied the Portuguese when asked if Costa would be fit for Saturday's Premier League game against QPR.
Mourinho confirmed the Brazil-born front man would not travel to
Shrewsbury for Tuesday's Capital One Cup fourth round match against the
League Two side.
Given that he is 36 years old, Didier Drogba will need to "sleep for
24 hours" after his exertions at Old Trafford and will therefore miss
Tuesday's game.
With Loic Remy out through injury, Andre Schurrle is expected to lead
the line at New Meadow, although young forward Dominic Solanke could
also feature.
Mourinho confirmed in a post-match briefing at Old Trafford that
Schurrle, Mohamed Salah, Kurt Zouma, John Obi Mikel and 19-year-old
midifelder Lewis Baker will play at Shrewsbury.
