Watford refused to confirm whether Oscar Garcia was still in hospital tonight following his admission for minor chest pains on Sunday.

Oscar’s assistant coaches Ruben Martinez and Javier Pereira took the Hornets team for the 1-0 victory over Blackpool tonight.

Martinez addressed the media in Oscar’s absence and was joined by head of medical Marco Cesarini, who, like with former head coach Beppe Sannino, assisted as a translator, although he was only required once by Martinez.

The first question related to Oscar’s health and Cesarini stated: “The club will update the situation on Oscar tomorrow so we would prefer not to comment now.”

When asked if Oscar was still in hospital, he added: “The club will update the situation tomorrow.”

Martinez said he had not been in touch with his good friend following their first victory since joining the club because he “needs rest”.

Martinez added: “He had a lot of confidence in me and Javier. We have the same style and ideas. He needs rest – everyone knows that – and we didn’t speak with him [this evening].”

New sporting director Luke Dowling yesterday said Oscar helped select the starting XI in training on Sunday and was in dialogue with his coaching staff yesterday.

When asked if Oscar had contributed to the starting XI and formation, Martinez responded: “In the last game we started with 3-5-2 and after 20 minutes we changed so we decided to take the same style [4-2-3-1 formation] into this game.”

He did add: “It has been a few complicated days and for everybody the victory is good news – including Oscar.”

The club were also unable to provide any insight into the severity of Deeney’s injury after the Golden Boys captain was forced off with a hamstring problem.

“At the moment we don’t know,” Martinez said.

Read a report from tonight's 1-0 win over Blackpool here.