COSTA BUST-UP
Fitness row with Conte could lead to Chelsea exit
CHELSEA striker Diego Costa’s future has been thrown into doubt after a furious row with Antonio Conte over his fitness.
The Spain forward has not travelled with the Premier League leaders for tonight’s match against champions Leicester. And the clash with manager Conte could now see him leave Stamford Bridge.
Costa, 28, believes he is suffering from a lower back problem, which could be linked to his history of hamstring injuries.
He wanted to rest this week but Chelsea expected him to train as part of Conte’s strict fitness regime. This sparked a series of blazingg arguments,g , as exclusively revealed led by MailOnline, with Conteonte backing his medical team am and leaving Costa (right) t) flabbergasted.
Sportsmail understands representatives of Costa are in China. Oscar and John Mikel Obi have already quit Chelsea forr mega-money deals there e in recent weeks.
The disagreement has led to a rift between Costa, osta, Conte and the Chelsea physios. The striker does not agreeee with their methods and has pointed to his impressive record this season, when he has scored 14 league goals.
Chelsea had planned to offer Costa a new contract but that is now in significant doubt, although the forward is prone to such fallings-out and the club hope the matter can be resolved.
Chelsea medical staff have been cautious with Costa, taking extra precautions this season to ensure his hamstring issues do not flare up. Costa
has responded by being Chelsea’s most influential player, but the issue could now wreck the club’s push for the title.
And Sky Italia reported last night that Conte had shouted at Costa, ‘Go to China’, during their heated exchange.
Conte remains unconvinced by Costa’s £33m understudy Michy Batshuayi and is in the market for a striker this month, with Swansea’s Fernando Llorente a target.
The issue with Costa could see him step up his search.
Liverpool legend and Sky pundit Graeme Souness insisted last night that Chelsea must find a solution to get Costa back onside, or risk throwing away the title.
He said: ‘You have to sit down with him and you have to find common ground. You cannot have him sit there and not play for the rest of the season. West Ham are talking about that with Dimitri Payet but I don’t think Chelsea can afford to do that.
‘If I was Conte I would be saying, “We’ve got to resolve this, we’ve got to get him back playing like he has been for the previous six months”.
‘They’d be losing their biggest threat. He gets them goals — that’s the hardest thing in football. He’s a warrior and he makes people play. He is the biggest loss Chelsea could have . . . they cannot afford that.
‘I would imagine that the owner (Roman COSTA IN BLAZING ROW WITH CONTE How MailOnline broke the story yesterday Abramovich) will be up for a fight. He’ll be saying to Costa, “You’re staying here, you’re going nowhere”.’
Meanwhile, Conte has revealed how Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri used eggs and music to open his eyes to the quirks of British football.
Conte struck up a relationship with his fellow Italian ahead of Chelsea’s EFL Cup win over the Foxes in September, with Ranieri enlightening Conte about the idiosyncrasies of the Premier League.
After the conversation, Chelsea embarked on the 13-game winning run that launched them up the Premier League, which they lead by five points.
Conte said: ‘His experience here is very important for me, so I asked him a lot because arriving in a new country with a new language is not easy.
‘He told me to understand very quickly the habits in England. For example, the music in the changing room or before the game that the players want to eat eggs.
‘It is not like this in Italy, but he told me to understand these habits in England, to accept them quickly.
‘There is no music in the changing room before the game (in Italy), only on the headphones. Here, I am starting now to appreciate this music! One day maybe I can bring these habits back to Italy.’