Malaga coach allays Christian Atsu injury fears, reveals reason for early substitution despite heroics

Malaga manager Javi Gracia has allayed fears that Christian Atsu has suffered injury by revealing that he substituted his Ghana international early in their 3-0 win over Getafe over the weekend because of tiredness.

Atsu, who is on loan from Chelsea, scored in debut for the Spanish top-flight side on Friday but was surprisingly substituted at half-time of the La Liga game.

His early substitution sparked fears that the Ghana star had suffered an injury which prompted his early substitution but the coach says Atsu looks to have suffered from tiredness which resulted in the substitution.

'Atsu was somewhat worked out,' Gracia told his club's official website.

'He had a good 45 minutes, and it did not make sense to expose him much more in the second half, as we had fresh players [on the bench].

'He did a good job and I am happy about that.
'We are changing our line up a lot due to player absence through injuries and suspensions. The players missing showed their level [earlier], and the team continued to perform well.

'That is credit to the players that, when some other players are not around, the team doesn't fall apart.'

Atsu has not played many competitive matches since moving to England to play for Chelsea where he was sent on loan to Everton and Bournemouth.

He could only made two appearances for Bournemouth before he was recalled and subsequently loaned out to Malaga.