Chelsea’s Capital One Cup defeat at Stoke in the fourth round was compounded by the fact that Spanish striker Diego Costa had to be taken to hospital with a rib injury.
The reigning Premier League champions crashed out of the league cup on penalties at the Britannia Stadium.
The loss of Costa could be major one, as he has just returned from serving a three-game suspension. The severity of the Brazilian-born striker’s injury is not yet known, but he is now a doubt for the Blues lunchtime meeting with Liverpool on Saturday at Stamford Bridge.
Costa sustained the injury after just 32 minutes in a clash with Stoke’s combative midfielder Charlie Adam.
Costa’s replacement Loic Remy, just back from injury himself, scored the Blues equaliser in stoppage-time and will be competing with Radamel Falcao for that lone striker role if Costa does not recover in time to feature against Liverpool.
Chelsea have been in terrible form winning just one of their last seven games in all competitions and have a busy schedule ahead of them in November.
The last thing that under-fire boss Jose Mourinho needs is one of the teams key players being missing for a prolonged period.
Will Diego Costa be missing for Chelsea on Saturday?
