Stamford Bridge boss protective over injury prone striker.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has said that he believes striker Diego Costa needs to be teated with special care following comments made by Spanish national team boss Vicente Del Bosque, the Daily Star reports.
SEE MORE:
Manchester City v Manchester United Live Streaming Guide And Premier League Preview
Best Veterans – Players over 34 who are still top-class.
Best Sledging – Who leads the world in on-field banter?
A club vs country row between Chelsea and Spain has rumbled on after Costa returned from international duty with an injury.
The £32million man has missed Chelsea previous four games, but is still expected to be called up by Del Bosque for the upcoming clashes against Belarus and Germany.
“We’ve had no luck with Diego. He didn’t join us at the best time and the injuries he had didn’t help him,” Del Bosque said.
“In some things we are very flexible and in others stubborn, and in this we are stubborn.
“I don’t know if we are right or wrong, but if we hadn’t called up Costa for the national team we’d definitely have been criticised for not having done so.”
But Mourinho hit back, claiming the striker needed protecting given his current circumstances.
“I have nothing to to say, I have nothing to say,” Mourinho replied.
“The only thing I can say is what everybody knows, which is that at the time he was having problems at Chelsea and the way we managed to keep him playing and after the national team we lost him for four matches – Crystal Palace, Maribor, Shrewsbury and Manchester United.
“Four matches in three different competitions and now he is again available but he needs to obviously play again under special care and we are willing to do that. It’s the only thing we can do and nothing else.
“I am always supportive of players playing for their countries when the players are in condition to it and when players are in their national teams they follow the same kind of problem to recover from the problems they have.
“I am nobody to stand in the way of national teams.
“I cannot stop him from going.”
SEE ALSO: Best young football players in the world!
COMMENTS