Mourinho: Costa unable to cope with fixture demand

Jose Mourinho has confirmed that Diego Costa's current conditioning does not allow the Spaniard to cope with the heavy fixture demand.

Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw by Schalke, who they twice beat 3-0 last term, after Cesc Fabregas' 11th-minute strike was cancelled out by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. Costa, who has scored seven goals in his first four Premier League games following his £32million summer move from Atletico Madrid, came off the bench but was unable to find a winner.

"Costa has a problem," said Mourinho of the striker, who scored a hat-trick in Saturday's defeat of Swansea. "If he has one week to let the muscle recover he can start a game. Playing on Saturday, three days is not enough for him to recover. It was not to protect for the game Sunday (at Manchester City) it was because today he was not in condition to start the game."

Costa limped out of last season's Champions League final with Atletico with a hamstring problem and the injury recurred while on international duty earlier this month with Spain.

"He played here one match and he was perfect," Mourinho said. "He went to the national team and after the game against France he came back to us injured. He came to us (from Atletico) and he was completely fine. He had a problem again in the national team, not with us. Now we have the problem and now we have to resolve the problem the best we can.

"Today he was not in condition to play. Sunday we believe he is. Next week against Bolton (in the Capital One Cup) for sure he isn't. We have to manage the situation until the moment he's completely fine. If today he starts the game, for sure he cannot play on Sunday. We have to go step by step."

(uk.eurosport.yahoo.com)

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