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Diego Costa's latest injury is, according to a report in the Guardian a) completely disassociated with all of his previous injury problems and b) not particularly severe, leaving Chelsea 'cautiously optimistic' about getting him back in time for the Swansea match this weekend. Both pieces of information are obviously good news, and the team's much better with Diego Costa leading the line. But the report is an interesting starting point for two further thoughts.
- The club is in a much, much better place now than they were two weeks ago. Then a potential Costa absence injury meant that we'd be starting either an aged Didier Drogba or Fernando Torres; now it would almost certainly mean a Blues debut for Loïc Rémy. The timing wouldn't be ideal, but the quality is. Picking up the French striker for cheap was a very, very smart move.
- I really don't like the fact that Costa keeps picking up minor muscular injuries. At 25, he'll bounce back quickly from the little pains and niggles, but being injury prone is one of those things that amplifies with age. Hopefully Chelsea figure out a way of preventing these problems, letting him heal up completely and not have anything recur, because otherwise we're in serious risk of our star striker getting an injury that doesn't leave us 'cautiously optimistic' about anything.
If not for the fact that Rémy hasn't had any time to bed in yet, I'd be completely in favour of trying to convince Costa to take an extra week's rest before the busy part of the season really kicks in. As it stands, we'll probably need him against the Swans, but the more we push him the more likely we are to be talking about nagging health concerns all season. And that is not great.