In 2011, Diego Costa damaged his knee ligaments whilst playing for Atletico Madrid early on in the season.
He recovered tremendously from that, only to go on later in his career to consistently pick relatively small niggling injuries.
The medical team at Atletico attributed his constant injuries to how much of a push the player usually gives himself on the pitch of play, saying that it was an attribute he picked up from playing street football in Brazil were elbows were often used to ward off an approaching player.
Diego’s injury susceptibility was later made even worse by Atletico, who played him even whilst he was carrying small knocks.
Mostly due to the fact, that they rarely had a back up, on account of always selling star strikers.
Another reason a player could always pick up the kind of injuries the Spaniard has, may be an unwillingness to stay out of the action.
The truth is doctors and physical therapists can only do so much. At the end of the day, questions will be put to the player by these professionals to ascertain the progress of the treatment.
Where the player is the type that hates to miss important games, he’ll usually lie or tell half truths in other to be allowed to play.
If there are 5 players in the world you could pick who would do this, Costa would surely be amongst them.
For Chelsea at the end of the day, to recoup the 32 million pounds investment on Diego Costa, he has to be managed appropriately.
Which is one of the reasons; the Blues acquisition of Loic Remy was an inspired move.
He’s playing style is very similar to Costa. Remy’s fast, tries to bit the defensive line, has a good finish and isn’t bad in the Air.
With Drogba also offering a different skill set as a target man, Chelsea have capable deputies who wont represent such a large drop in quality once they’ve adapted to the pace and style of their new team.
One way the club can stop him from having niggling injuries that can later translate into major knocks, will be to identify that they have an injury prone player and play him appropriately.
In this instant case, Costa should be benched for FA cup and League cup games.
This should leave him free to prosecute both League and Champions league commitments, which are the clubs preferred trophies any way.
Lastly, when the Spanish striker does pick up a knock, rushing him back into action is a sure way of making sure the tear in his usual muscle injuries extend.
Allowing him time to recover from injuries whilst under the observation of Chelsea’s world class medical team, will go a long way in improving and reducing the number of both new and recurring injuries.
Diego has shown he is a known quality in his position and Chelsea has a job to do, in other to make sure it stays that way.
