According to the Telegraph on Saturday, Chelsea’s Diego Costa could be ruled out for the next three weeks. This gave 17-year-old Dominic Solanke his first appearance ever on the Blues bench. Minus Costa, Chelsea went on to beat Palace 2-1. As for the earlier report about Costa missing three weeks, that now seems to be a bit extreme.
It appears he’ll return sooner than that.
He’s been ruled out of Chelsea’s Champions League group game against Maribor on Tuesday due to a persistent hamstring issue, but he may return versus Manchester United on the 26th.
Jose Mourinho said: “It’s the same problem that he [Diego Costa] is having. Now an injury, not almost an injury. He’s not training because he’s not in condition to do it.”
“Tomorrow he can’t play. Let’s see what happens next weekend [against Manchester United] but what matters is tomorrow and tomorrow he can’t play.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2