Jose Mourinho has confirmed that Diego Costa is available for Chelsea's home match against QPR on Saturday after three weeks out, but stressed that the striker needs "special care."
Mourinho again fanned the flames of his dispute with Vicente Del Bosque over Costa after the Spain coach said he would be "stubborn" over selecting him.
That comment came after Mourinho's recent plea for Spain to allow him to rest, and the Chelsea boss told a news conference: "The only thing I can say is what everybody knows -- which is the time he was having problems in Chelsea and the way we managed to keep him playing, but after the national team we lost him for four matches.
"Crystal Palace, Maribor, Shrewsbury and Man United -- four matches in three different competitions. Now he's again available, but he needs obviously to be again under special care. We are going to do that. It's the only thing we can do -- nothing else.
"He's available. That's good for us. It's difficult with only one striker available. When you have two, obviously the situation improves.
"We don't have [John Obi] Mikel -- it's not good for us. He's always an option. But the fact we have recovered Ramires is a compensation for that loss. So the situation is a bit better."
Costa is set to be called up for Spain's Euro 2016 qualifier against Belarus, as well as their friendly against Germany next week.
"That's not my call, that's not my decision," Mourinho said. "I am always supportive of players playing for their countries when the players are in condition to do it, and when the players in the national team follow the same procedures to recover from the problems they have.
"I'm nobody to stand in the way of the national team. I cannot stop him going."
#INSERT type:image caption:In-form Diego Costa has missed four matches for Chelsea. END#
He praised the form of Didier Drogba, who has scored three times in his last three games, saying it gives him a "fantastic problem."
"To be important you don't need, at the age of 36, to play 90 minutes of 50 matches," he said. "To be important you need to be there when the team needs you to be there.
"And, obviously, he was fantastic for us in the last week when we were in real trouble without Diego and [Loic] Remy [who has also been injured and is out until after the international break], doing something that nobody should do -- playing two 90 minutes of football with 48 hours difference. He managed to do that in an absolutely fantastic way.
"It is a fantastic problem for me, and the perfect problem is when Remy is back. That's the perfect problem, to have all three.
"When we made that group of three in the beginning of the season, we thought we did well. Three levels of investment. Three levels of expectation. Three levels of contribution. Three levels of different qualities as a striker, and the team is so happy with that. We have three very good strikers in our squad."