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Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho hopes German international Andre Schurrle will have recovered from flu in time to feature against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Schurrle had to withdraw from the Germany squad which faced Ireland in a Euro qualifier earlier in the week due to the illness.
The 23-year-old’s career has been thriving since he joined from Bayer Leverkusen last year, although Mourinho has publicly demanded more consistency of late.
Schurrle, who was part of the Germany World Cup winning squad in July, admits Mourinho’s high standards is taking his career to another level.
He said: “Mourinho has taught me a different style of play and a different way of thinking to reach the world-class level someday.
“To him, finishing second is a failure. He doesn’t know the word ‘losing’. That’s how he holds his talk before the matches. His thinking is impressive – as impressive as the way he gets his message across. “He challenges you to be robust on the pitch, to play like a man. To commit a foul. I feel much better since joining Chelsea and I have become much more confident.”
How Chelsea’s summer signings have fared so far
Chelsea’s preparations for the trip to Selhurst Park, where they lost 1-0 in March, have been severely disrupted by the international break.
Brazilian trio Filipe Luis, Oscar and Willian will only start training today following a long flight back from playing in their country’s 4-0 victory against Japan.
The Spanish contingent of Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Cesar Azpilicueta, Belgium duo Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois, Plus England centre half Gary Cahill joined in a light session last night.
