Neil Ashton, Daily Mail journalist and NBC Sports insider, revealed on NBCSN’s Premier League Live that Diego Costa’s hamstring injury will eventually need to be operated on.

That would keep him out of action for approximately six weeks. But he doesn’t need to have it now.

At this moment, Chelsea are nursing Costa’s cranky hamstring through the season, leaving his status for each upcoming match in question and making things completely uncertain as the season goes on. Because of this, he was unavailable for the Blues’ match at Old Trafford as Chelsea only netted once in a 1-1 draw. He could miss other big games going forward if the issue isn’t ultimately addressed.

This news jives with previous things we’ve been told about Costa’s injury.

Costa himself has tried to play down his fitness troubles on multiple occasions, saying he is able to get himself fit for matches. But manager Jose Mourinho has revealed in the past that Costa isn’t training during the week, instead spending all his time between matches nursing his muscle.

Ashton said Jose Mourinho obviously wishes for this eventual operation to happen during international duty so he misses as little time as possible for Chelsea. The Daily Mail man tabbed a Spain match with Belarus – the reverse fixture of Euro 2016 qualifying group stage – on June 14 as a possible time for the surgery. However, that means Chelsea will have to deal with a broken Costa throughout the rest of the season and he would still miss the beginning of their preseason activities for the 2014/15 season.

With all that’s been reported about Costa’s injury and how iffy his status has been for each and every match going forward, it could be something both Chelsea and Spain would like to get out of the way now, especially with the Blues holding a comfortable lead at the top of the Premier League table. Chelsea still looked just as threatening against Manchester United without their frontman, although the finishing was not up to standards.

Spain has just two international matches scheduled between now and March, meaning he could theoretically have surgery after those two matches in early November and return without missing any time for his country.

Having missed the game at Old Trafford on Sunday, Chelsea’s next fixture is a Capital One Cup game against Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday. Their next Premier League game will be Saturday against Queens Park Rangers.

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