Oscar has been silent under Rafael Benitéz an after impressive start in his first season with Chelsea. Many would argue that it is due to playing him in the winger position by our Interim Manager, but there's more to it. Actually, there is so much more to it.

We all know that Mata has played almost two full seasons without a proper break (just one week before Olympic games, one week earlier in the season), but what about Oscar?

Firstly, his career is very interesting to follow. He started in Sao Paulo and made a few substitute cameos in autumn 2009. Then the problems with his transfer to Internacional appeared and he was sidelined for almost a year. He resumed playing on 15 August 2010; let's see what happened next:

7/10/2010 - 18/12/2010 - Internacional

Oscar played 7 games in this period. Then he had a little break, but had to prepare for Sudamericano Under-20 Championship, which started exactly one month later.

18/1/2011 - 13/2/2011 - Brazil U20

Not even a month and 9 games into this tournament, Oscar returned almost immediately to Internacional, since he participated in their next game.

24/2/2011 - 15/7/2011 - Internacional

In the space of 5 months, Oscar played exactly 27 games for his team. After that period he had practically no rest as he headed into the U-20 World Championship, which was won thanks to his hat trick in the final.

30/7/2011 - 21/8/2011 - Brazil U20

21 days and 7 matches for Oscar. Next? Four days later, he played for Internacional again. Crazy.

25/8/2011 - 4/12/2011 - Internacional, Brazil friendlies

21 games for Oscar in this short period. Then finally a short break before the Copa Libertadores started in January.

18/1/2012 - 17/3/2012 - Internacional

12 games in 2 months, followed by 1 month rest (or injury?), but I know what happened next.

6/5/2012 - now! - Internacional, Brazil NT, Brazil U-23, Chelsea

Firstly, 4 matches with Internacional, then 4 friendlies with Brazil NT, then back to playing for the club with 3 appearances, right away into Olympic Games and 6 more games with Brazil U-23. There was practically no rest and 4 days later he participated in another NT friendly, followed by his debut for Chelsea in four days time. Since his debut game, he made another 69 appearances (for Chelsea or national team) with no rest at all.

In summary

Oscar started his relevant career in adult football in the summer of 2010 and has been playing ever since - with little to no rest. Moreover, he has played a match every week since 6 May 2012! That is almost 88 matches in less than a WHOLE YEAR! Holy cow. And he is playing in the most intense league in the world at such a young age.

I really hope he gets proper rest this summer, which will benefit his physical development.

Sidenote: Do anyone have any information about his injury record before he joined Chelsea?