Diego Costa was taken off in today’s match as a precaution, not because he was injured, according to Jose Mourinho. Chelsea began their post season tour in the Far East with a 1-0 win against the Thailand All-Stars in Bangkok this afternoon. Diego Costa joined the fray at half-time, but was then brought off just twenty-five minutes later. This strange occurrence caused much uncertainty amongst the Chelsea faithful, as the Spaniard’s hamstring has been a recurring issue all season. However, as opposed to Costa being taken off due to an extremely unfortunate, unnecessary injury, Mourinho has reassured us that is not the case.
“Because we had so many players injured and in surgery we asked Diego to come and try to play, which he did for 25 minutes,” Mourinho said after the win.
“After that he was feeling tired so we had to protect him. He wanted to come, he respects the fans and he tried to play.”
In an Asian postseason friendly, there is absolutely no need to tire out important players or push them too far. Although it may have seemed a bit odd, as Mourinho said, Diego was merely fatigued. Cue the collective exhale of all Chelsea fans across the globe: our star striker is okay.
