After scoring in the early portion of Chelsea’s 3-2 win over Hull City on Sunday, Diego Costa was forced off in the 75th minute due to an ailment that has become all too familiar to the Blues’ centre forward in the past year, a hamstring injury.
Reports coming from The Guardian and BBC Sport indicate that the striker was in the process of undergoing tests in London on Monday to determine the severity of the injury. With a FIFA international break underway and a pair of friendlies coming up for Spain against Ukraine and Holland, the Spanish national side will be awaiting the results of the fitness examination to find out whether or not their target man will be available for duty for his country.
The hamstring flare up has been a recurring problem for Costa since last season at Atlético Madrid, where he dealt with the injury as long as he could before finally being forced off in the opening minutes of the Champions League final against Real Madrid in May. Costa has been bothered by the hammy again this season, as he missed time due to the ailment in the early season. Until Sunday, Costa had appeared to be playing at 100 per cent health since recovering from his last incident and is currently tied with Harry Kane atop the Premier League scoring chart with 19 goals for the campaign.
Following the match at the KC Stadium on Sunday, Chelsea manager José Mourinho confirmed that it is not an issue that will require surgery, citing Chelsea’s medical director.
“Dr. Biosca is against knives, is against surgery,” Mourinho said. “He’s all in favour of conservative work and collective work between medical department and fitness technical staff. And this is the direction, we believe.”
While Chelsea have two weeks off before their next fixture against Stoke City on April 4, it remains to be seen how Vicente del Bosque and the Spanish side will want to handle the situation. Back in October, Costa’s hamstring issue caused a dust up between Chelsea and the Spanish FA when Mourinho claimed that the striker had sustained further injury to the hamstring while playing for Spain, a claim which Spain refuted.
The Spanish federation released a statement regarding the situation, and it reads: “Costa will undergo tests on Monday in London and the results will be available to Spain’s medical staff for their evaluation.“
