Costa Chelsea future in doubt

Diego Costa's future at Chelsea has been thrown into doubt after the striker was dropped for Saturday's visit to Leicester City after a row over his fitness.

The Daily Mail report that the 28-year-old clashed with a fitness trainer over an injury the player claims he is suffering from with the coach believing it to be exaggerated.

Adding fuel to the fire are claims that the Spain international has been the subject of a huge offer from a Chinese club with a reported £30m after tax per year offer on the table for Costa.

The former Atletico Madrid star, who has been in electric form this campaign, is reported to wish to speak to the club about the proposal but Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and manager Antonio Conte are loathe to let the player do so.

Conte has backed his fitness trainer in his view on Costa and the player has not trained for the last three days and has been told to stay away from the club for the time being, including for the clash with the Foxes.

The Italian was asked at his regular pre-match press conference about his plans for the game and also for his opinion on if he ever had a situation such as that faced by West Ham where star player Dmitri Payet has asked to leave and is allegedly refusing to play for the club.

The former Juventus boss played a straight bat and was not asked specifically about Costa, the story only breaking in the media afterwards.

“I have to check a couple of situations and then decide [for the team against Leicester],” he said. “I don’t want to say exactly what and give an advantage to our opponent.

“It’s very difficult to talk [about Payet] and above all for me, it’s very difficult for me to talk about another player. For my club, for my players, we solve our problem if there are problems. This is important.”

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