Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has welcomed Diego Costa’s injury-enforced abrupt end to international duty, saying that it will give the striker a much-needed two-week rest to get over his setback.
Costa joined Chelsea at the start of the current season and he has returned prolific figures for the Premier League outfit, having scored 19 league goals and assisted a further three to help them climb to the top of the table.
But his season has been occasionally marred by a hamstring problem, which saw him miss a couple of league outings earlier in the campaign.
The Brazil-born Spain international’s performances have seen national team manager Vicente del Bosque call him up for their upcoming fixtures, but the 26-year-old’s recurring hamstring problem has forced him out of action.
And the Portuguese feels that Costa has made the right decision to end his international duty, saying that it will accord the striker some much-needed rest.
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“He is a guy with a lot of experience with this type of injuries. If he says, 'It's over for me', it's over for him”, Mourinho was quoted as saying by Marca.
“He has this fragility, so we know that it can happen to him, and he works hard to compensate for it.
“But he can get injured, so it's good that he can rest for two weeks now.
“But if he's injured, he's injured. We don't cry with injured players, so what we have to do is move forward.”
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