Vicente del Bosque says Spain will remain ‘stubborn’ over Diego Costa’s selection for international duty.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho recently blamed the Spain boss for Costa’s continued injury issues, the striker having missed his club’s last four games with a hamstring problem, and claimed he should not have featured in La Roja’s Euro 2016 qualifiers with Slovakia and Luxembourg early this month.
However, Del Bosque told the DPA news agency that he is unwilling to change his stance on the matter.
“We’ve had no luck with Diego. He didn’t join us at the best time and the injuries he had didn’t help him,” he maintained.
“In some things we are very flexible and in others stubborn, and in this we are stubborn
“I don’t know if we are right or wrong, but if we hadn’t called up Costa for the national team we’d definitely have been criticised for not having done so.”
Del Bosque denied that he had offered certain players a commitment to play them in every game, although his squad is undergoing something of a transition at the moment.
“We don’t have a 100 per cent commitment to anyone. The games will continue to be our guide.
“The important thing is to have players who are active and we can’t suddenly start preparing a new team, so we must take things step-by-step.
“Fortunately we have good material to work with and have several alternatives in different positions.”
Spain’s next fixtures are a home Euro 2016 qualifier against Belarus in Huelva on November 15 and a friendly against world champions Germany in Vigo three days later.
