• Premier League

Costa available for Chelsea against QPR

Diego Costa is available to return for Chelsea against Queens Park Rangers but Jose Mourinho says the striker needs "special care" as he continued his war of words with Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque.

Del Bosque this week said he would be "stubborn" over continuing to select Costa, despite Mourinho publicly pleading that Spain allow him rest due to his ongoing hamstring issues.

Diego Costa has missed Chelsea's last four games © Getty Images

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"The only thing I can say is what everybody knows, which is the time he was having problems in Chelsea and the way we managed to keep him playing, but after the national team we lost him for four matches," Mourinho said.

"Crystal Palace, Maribor, Shrewsbury and Man United. Four matches in three different competitions. Now he's again available, but he needs obviously to be again under special care. We are going to do that. It's the only thing we can do, nothing else."

Mourinho also implied Costa would start against QPR. He said: "He's available. That's good for us. It's difficult, only one striker available. When you have two, obviously the situation improves."

Costa is set to be called up for Spain's Euro 2016 qualifier against Belarus and friendly against Germany next week, but Mourinho says he is powerless to stop Del Bosque.

"That's not my call, that's not my decision," Mourinho said. "I am always supportive of players playing for their countries when the players are in condition to do it, and when the players in the national team follow the same procedures to recover from the problems they have.

"I'm nobody to stand in the way of the national team. I cannot stop him going."

Mourinho also lauded Didier Drogba after his recent return to form with three goals in three matches, saying it gives him a "fantastic problem".

"To be important you don't need, at the age of 36, to play 90 minutes of 50 matches," Mourinho added. "To be important you need to be there when the team needs you to be there.

"And, obviously, he was fantastic for us in the last week when we were in real trouble without Diego and [Loic] Remy, doing something that nobody should do: to play two 90 minutes of football with 48 hours difference. He managed to do that in an absolutely fantastic way.

"A fantastic problem for me. The perfect problem is when Remy is back. That's the perfect problem: to have all three. When we made that group of three in the beginning of the season, we thought we did well. Three levels of investment. Three levels of expectation. Three levels of contribution. Three levels of different qualities as a striker and the team is so happy with that. We have three very good strikers in our squad."

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