Mourinho hopes Adriano will be happy

(GETTY IMAGES)

Inter coach Jose Mourinho said he hoped Adriano found happiness away from Inter Milan even if that meant he had to stop playing.

The Brazil and Inter Milan striker said on Thursday he was taking a break from football and would rethink his career.

"Inter have done everything to help Adriano before I arrived and with me, as a coach and human being, so have the president and his team mates," Mourinho told a news conference on Friday.

"We'll see. The important thing is that he's happy. If he's happy like this, if you lose the player but the man is happy, perfect.

"But for the moment I don't want to talk because I haven't spoken to him yet. Two people with a positive relationship will definitely have the chance to speak and understand the real reasons for his words."

Adriano, who failed to return to Italy after last week's World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Peru in which he was an unused substitute, told reporters in Brazil on Thursday that happiness was more important to him than money.

"I've lost the happiness of playing," the 27-year-old said. "I wouldn't like to go back to Italy, I want to live in peace here in Brazil."

Adriano, who has scored 29 goals in 47 appearances for Brazil, was top scorer at the 2004 Copa America and the 2005 Confederations Cup after replacing the unavailable Ronaldo in both tournaments.

He scored a hat-trick in a World Cup qualifier against Chile in September 2005.

However, the powerful forward has struggled with fitness and alcohol problems since the 2006 World Cup, showing only flashes of his old form, and spent six months on loan at Sao Paulo in the first half of last year before returning to Inter.

He irritated Mourinho with a perceived lack of commitment earlier this season but had crept back into the coach's favour.