• Striker returns after hamstring and groin complaints • Missed two Spain games for ‘holiday’ with club physios • ‘Am I going to protect him? No way. He plays’

José Mourinho says Diego Costa has “totally recovered” from the hamstring and groin problems that have dogged the striker’s time at Chelsea to date.

The Spain international was not called up to Vicente del Bosque’s squad for the recent matches against Belarus and Germany, instead spending time with the club’s physios in an effort to shake off his recent groin injury, and Mourinho has said his star striker has made a full recovery and is available for the visit of West Brom on Saturday.

“Diego has totally recovered. He had a little holiday, with a Chelsea physio, for two weeks so even then he was working many hours per day with our physio,” Mourinho said.

“After that he came back, he keeps going in the right direction. We feel he’s free of his old injury.

“We go match by match, but the way he trains and expresses himself in training, he has a free mind. He’s free of fears at this moment. He’s good at this moment.”

With 12 games between now and New Year’s Day, Costa will be experiencing the busy English end-of-year calendar for the first time. The Chelsea manager said he has spoken to the Spaniard, who has scored 10 goals in nine league games this season, about adjusting to the hectic December period. “I believe [this period has set him up for the rest of the season], but now we are going to have a period that is new for him. I believe the Christmas period for players doing it for the first time in their careers is more difficult.

“The English players, or those who have been here for many years, are more physically and mentally adapted and prepared to cope with the special incredible marathon of football we face.”

But Mourinho was adamant that the forward would have a role in all of Chelsea’s fixtures when fit, despite being one yellow card away from a one-match suspension.

“Am I going to protect him? No way. He plays. When he’s fit, he plays. When he gets the fifth yellow card … I am not thinking about Sunderland, Newcastle or Stoke. I am thinking just about the next match.”