With veteran striker Didier Drogba aggravating his ankle injury in training earlier in the day, Chelsea can only boast of one fit striker going into the match day two fixture of the Uefa champions league against Sporting Lisbon. Didier Drogba earlier tweeted during the day indicating his unavailability while wishing the team well against Sporting CP.
“Seems I came back too quickly from my ankle injury & have aggravated it further in training so won’t be travelling with team today…..”
“Gutted not to be fit but wishing team all the best #chelsea #blues” Drogba tweeted.
This leaves Chelsea with only Loic Remy as the only fit striker for Chelsea as Diego Costa has been touch and go for Chelsea in previous games no thanks to his niggling hamstring and subsequent tightening of the muscle.
The summer acquisition has been in blistering form for the club after scoring eight goals in six premier league appearances against five different teams.
Mourinho had earlier cast doubt on the player’s availability after stating he could not train well as expected due to the tightening of his muscle and as such need rest after games hence, is not ready to play games in quick succession.
“He cannot be on top of his game. He’s doing almost nothing in training. He’s just resting and recovering from the tight muscle he has. I want to select him. Let’s see what happens”. – Mourinho
As much as Mourinho wants to select him, he will also look not to risk his star man bearing in mind Chelsea also have a game against Arsenal come lunchtime on Sunday. This makes Loic Remy the clear favourite to start upfront while Costa takes his place on the bench.
Costa is an intelligent player and will understand that the decision to start him from the bench in consecutive Uefa champions league match is for his own good. There are also many champions league matches ahead for him to play when he fully recovers from his hamstring.
His pace, trickery, strength aggression and eye for goal will be greatly missed though, but, Remy should prove a capable replacement for him and if he eventually gets an opportunity to be on the pitch at any point in the game as he did against Schalke04 in the 1-1 draw a fortnight ago, he will as usual give opposition defence a hell of a nightmare.