Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has said that Diego Costa is not in a good enough condition to be able to play three matches a week for the Stamford Bridge club, with the Spain international striker’s well known hamstring issues forcing him out of yesterday’s tie with Schalke, as reported by the Daily Star.
The Blues ultimately drew the game against the German side, having taken the lead. A late goal from Dutch striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar meant that Mourinho’s men could only get a point from the first game in the Champions League group stage.
Costa was absent from the game, suffering from fitness problems, and while he can play some games, Mourinho is convinced that he cannot handle a full schedule.
The former Atletico Madrid man, who cost £32 million to sign from the La Liga champions this summer, has been in tremendous form since making his debut, scoring a staggering seven goals in only four games, but his fitness problems will come as an issue to Chelsea.
Mourinho said: “Diego Costa is not in condition to play three matches in a week. He has problems when he plays one game, he needs a week to recover.
“There was frustration tonight because we tried everything to win the game. Their goal was a counter-attack where we made two mistakes.
“One was not to make a foul immediately when we had the chance for that.
“The other one was the fact I told my players 20 times that Julian Draxler wants to come inside off his right foot. So we have to close and press his right foot. So there was also a mistake in the box.”
