Diego Costa will become the latest Chelsea player to wear a protective mask should he be passed fit to play against Newcastle United on Saturday after the Spain forward broke his nose in training.
The striker was injured in a clash of heads with the 18-year-old Canadian youth-team defender Fikayo Tomori, who had been promoted to the senior set-up to make up the numbers at Cobham. Costa flew to Milan to have a custom-made mask fitted and will take part in a light training session on Friday afternoon to adjust to it, with the interim manager, Guus Hiddink, confident the Spain international should be able to feature in Saturday’s teatime kick-off.
Costa will join Gary Cahill, Nemanja Matic and César Azpilicueta in sporting facial protection this season, with players such as Cesc Fàbregas and Demba Ba having worn masks in recent seasons. “Diego got into a duel and had his nose broken,” said Hiddink. “It was not a tough duel but he put his nose on the back of the kid’s head. He was very unlucky and his nose was broken. He will return today. They’ll try and give him a mask as well ... we are a team with a lot of masks. A Zorro team.
“He will come back and do some light training in the afternoon because he must experience how he deals with the mask. Then he will join us in the hotel later on. It was just a small incident, just a duel. But it’s very fragile when you hit your nose on the back of the head of a ‘firm’ young man. I think he will be available. We’ll see how he reacts this afternoon in a very light session, but I hope – I’m not sure – that he will be available.”
Chelsea have promoted the young centre-half Jake Clarke-Salter to their senior squad for the remainder of the campaign to cover for the loss of Kurt Zouma to cruciate knee ligament damage. The France international underwent surgery in Barcelona this week and will miss the next six months at least, ruling him out of Euro 2016, with Clarke-Salter joining Matt Miazga, the recent signing from New York Red Bulls, in training regularly with the first team.
“Matt moves up, and also I have the kid from the academy [Clarke-Salter] who is now with us,” said Hiddink. “He is coming up from the academy, but also Matt who has been with us a few weeks already. In the first-team squad of 15 or 16 players, we can also make variations with Branislav Ivanovic, Baba Rahman, César Azpilicueta who can play inside … we have some options to choose.”
Clarke-Salter had impressed José Mourinho on Chelsea’s pre-season tour last summer, only to find his opportunities severely limited since. The 18-year-old signed a new contract in November tying him to the club until 2019. The loss of Zouma is not expected to affect contract negotiations with John Terry, with the club captain still likely to end a 21-year association with Chelsea in the summer.
