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Jose Mourinho fears Diego Costa injury nightmare

Football

By Mirror | Mar 23, 2015

**Jose Mourinho opens up on injury-prone Chelsea striker Diego Costa**

Jose Mourinho saw Chelsea take a huge step towards the Premier League title – and then admitted his fears for “fragile” Diego Costa.

Chelsea top scorer Costa asked to come off after suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury during Sunday's 3-2 win over Hull, but will still have to travel to Madrid on Monday to report up for Spain’s Euro 2016 qualifier with Ukraine next Friday.

It is a source of frustration for Mourinho even after Costa’s replacement, supersub Loic Remy, fired a late winner to put Chelsea six points clear at the top with a game in hand.

Chelsea boss Mourinho said: “He has this problem since he had the injury and tried to play in the Champions League final with Atletico Madrid last season, was injured and again he has this fragility.

“We know his hamstring is not strong. He works hard during the week. He has 15 days without football with Chelsea but if he’s injured he’s injured. We never cry with injured players.

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“When a striker is playing and the team needs a goal to win with 15 minutes to go, if he (Costa) says it’s over for him then it’s over for him. He has a lot of experience of hamstring injuries.

“But every time Remy plays, he’s there. He probably deserves more than I gave him. There are not many times when a coach can feel he owes something to a player and with Remy that’s the case. I think I owe him something.”

Mourinho is confident his players can now finish the job and win the Premier League title.

“The title race should be over,” said Mourinho. “In normal conditions should have eight ten twelve more points but it’s unpredictable.

“We have a six points lead, one match in hand, and eight matches to go to our opponents. They can make 24 points. I’m pretty confident. I believe in my players.”

Hull boss Steve Bruce insists his team will survive after claiming it was their best performance of the season as they came back from 2-0 down and nearly got something.

Bruce said: “We’re totally disappointed because that’s as a good a display as we’ve seen for a long, long time. Everyone’s talking about our run in but in my experience games against the top or the bottom are tough.

“We still looked a threat going forward. Sure we’ve got enough. Sure if we play like today we’re good enough.”