Chelsea
manager, Antonio Conte, has refused to confirm if Diego Costa would
return to the team, after he was left out of their 3-0 win over
Leicester City on Saturday.
Diego Costa
Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte has played down the row over Diego
Costa, insisting he did not play against Leicester because of a back
injury.
On Saturday
that the Spain striker had been dropped for the trip to the King Power
after arguing with Conte and two fitness coaches in training on Tuesday.
Conte is understood to have ended the spat by telling Costa to "go to China",
with the striker apparently unsettled by a £30m-per-year offer from a
Super League club, and he did not train with the first team for the rest
of the week.
But, after his side won 3-0 at the Foxes, Conte insisted he is not
aware of any interest from China and a back injury “is the truth”, and
he will assess Costa when the team returns to training on Tuesday.
The Italian said: “If you want to know the truth. I am ready to
tell the truth. On Tuesday, during the training session, Diego stopped
because he felt a pain in his back, and from that moment he didn’t train
during the week.
“And for this reason today he wasn’t available for the starting
eleven, or for the bench, or to come with the squad. This is the
reason. This is the truth about Diego.
“I read a lot of speculation about this topic. I can tell you
that, if there are problems with the players, then I am used to, in my
career, solving them in the changing room, not outside, not in a press
conference.
“I don’t know anything about this (interest from China). The
club did not tell me about this. For this reason, it can be only
speculation.
“We start our training session on Tuesday and next week we will
see. It’s important to understand his physical condition and then we
will see if he trains with us. I don’t know (how long he will be out)
because I don’t have his pain.”
In his absence, Chelsea recovered from their defeat to Tottenham
with a comprehensive victory over champions Leicester, with two goals
from Marcos Alonso and another from Pedro ensuring a seven-point gap at
the top of the Premier League.
And Conte hailed his players for their reaction, insisting there
was a “great spirit” among them and they must “always be together”.
He said: “Today my players showed me a great performance. After
13 wins in a row and then a defeat, it’s difficult to know the reaction
of your team, but it was very good. They showed great will to fight and
to win.
“We started this game with a lot of pressure after Tottenham
and Arsenal’s victories. But we showed great experience to manage this
situation."
-SkySports
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