Jose Mourinho furious with Spain over treatment of Chelsea striker Diego Costa

JOSE Mourinho deals with Diego Costa’s injury in typically sarcastic fashion, saying he’ll be back when Spain decides to free him for Chelsea.

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JOSE Mourinho has criticised the treatment of some of his Chelsea players on international duty after the manager revealed Diego Costa will miss Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Maribor.

Mourinho confirmed Costa - who also missed the 2-1 weekend victory at Crystal Palace - aggravated an existing hamstring problem during the last international break with Spain when he faced Slovakia and Luxembourg in the space of four days.

The Chelsea manager insists he had no contact with Spain coach Vicente del Bosque or the national team’s medical staff about Costa’s condition before the player joined up with the Spanish squad.

And speaking ahead of the visit of Maribor to Stamford Bridge, he said: “It’s the same problem that he is having but now an injury, not an almost injury.

“It’s simple and he is not training because he is not in condition to do it.

“Tomorrow (Tuesday), he cannot play.” Mourinho admitted there was little he could do to influence the way his players are handled while away with their national teams. And he revealed England manager Roy Hodgson is the only national coach to have contacted him this season to discuss the condition of one of his players.

Mourinho said: “There are no rules, no laws to protect. I think it is just the mentality of the national team coaches or the national teams.

Chelsea's Diego Costa has been a revelation in the Premier League.

“It is up to them to take good care of the players or to look after them in a selfish way, it is up to the teams, not to us. “I’m not the kind of guy that tells the players not to go. I don’t tell the players to pretend they have problems. I stimulate the players to go, I like the players to go.

“After that you have sometimes national coaches and you have medical departments in the federations that want to establish a relationship.

“They are interested in knowing the situation of the players, what the players are doing, the moment in terms of physical conditions, their habits before matches, after matches and in between matches.

“And some others they simply don’t care. And this is something we cannot resolve.

“It hurts, I am not happy when you give players in good condition and you receive them back in bad conditions.” Mourinho has yet to decide whether Didier Drogba or Loic Remy will start against the Slovenian side, saying: “Didier (Drogba) is fit to play although he is not in a condition to play 90 minutes.” Chelsea will also be without John Obi Mikel, Ramires and Andre Schurrle, but Mourinho insists he will not rest any players with one eye on Sunday’s visit to Old Trafford to face Manchester United.

Originally published as Jose Mourinho furious with Spain over treatment of Chelsea striker Diego Costa