Chelsea to send Luiz on loan

LONDON: Chelsea are reportedly ready to send defender David Luiz (pic) on loan this month.

Luiz was pictured back at Blues training on Wednesday having not played in over a month due to a knee injury.

The Brazilian defender is attracting interest from Arsenal and Manchester United – Britain’s the Star report that Chelsea will not permit him to move to north London.

The relationship between Luiz and Conte has deteriorated to such a point that that the Blues are looking to offload the Brazilian in January.

The former Paris St Germain ace, 30, was said to have had a row with Antonio Conte after a 3-0 Champions League defeat to Roma at the end of October.

He was then left out of the squad for the Blues’ 1-0 Premier League win over Manchester United the following weekend.

Having lost his spot to Andreas Christensen, Luiz has not played since Chelsea’s 4-0 win at Qarabag on Nov 22 but made a return to the Blues’ first-team in Saturday’s FA Cup third round tie against Norwich.

Conte admitted this week that he would not stand in Luiz’s way if he decided to move on in January.

He said: “I was a player – I will understand if someone is worried for the World Cup. I will understand if someone is thinking in this way.

“I prefer to have players very happy to stay here than to have players that are unhappy because when you are unhappy you transfer this to the other players, to me and to my staff and I don’t like this.

“I like to avoid this situation. My task is to try to improve every single player in my squad.

“And when there is the right moment and the club ask me something about the transfer market, I give my opinion.” — The Sun, London