Everything, according to Jose Mourinho, is a mind game – well bar the result that is.
One could be forgiven for thinking that Mourinho has chosen to rest Costa after the poor guy was abused so badly by La Roja and picked two ‘easier’ games against Crystal Palace and Maribor to do so.
Last season, Costa had a host of hamstring issues and even banged up his head pretty badly at one point, but as Diego Simeone noted, it takes more than that to keep the tiger out.
Costa will want to be involved in the big games – but if he can make the starting eleven after being hospitalised for a mystery illness and worrying over his hamstrings – and groin, he may as well be renamed the Terminator for the amount of times he manages to come back.