Spain coach Vicente del Bosque has told Radio Marca he is planning to field Diego Costa against El Salvador on Saturday but does not want to push the striker too hard.
Del Bosque included Costa in his 23-man World Cup squad despite the Atletico Madrid star struggling with a hamstring injury towards the end of the season.
The Brazil-born forward aggravated the injury when playing for Atletico against Barcelona on the last day of the La Liga campaign and then against Real Madrid in the Champions League final a week later.
However, impressed by a haul of 27 goals in 35 league games, and having worked hard to persuade him to switch his international allegiance to Spain from Brazil, Del Bosque has gambled on Costa's fitness.
The Spain boss believes Costa is recovering well and he is determined that both the Atletico frontman and fellow injury concern Juanfran will both get a run out in the reigning world champions' final warm-up match against El Salvador -- though the pair will be treated with kid gloves.
"We aren't going to expose them to injury but we want to see them during a match and I hope their response will be positive," Del Bosque said on Thursday. "If we can try them in the El Salvador match, so much the better."
Del Bosque's side open their defence of the World Cup against Netherlands, in a repeat of the final in South Africa four years ago.
And Spain's veteran coach is wary of the threat posed by the Oranje, adding: "The first match is the most worrisome, against Netherlands. They are a very organised team, very well coached and surely will give us difficulties."
Del Bosque also revealed that he has "made a decision on nine players" in his starting line-up for the opening Group B game, which takes place on June 13 in Salvador.
No comments:
Post a Comment