Chelsea boss Antonio Conte was involved in a heated exchanged with Diego Costa on Friday, which in turn led to the Spaniard being dropped this weekend.
Costa will play no part for the Blues against Leicester City, and it remains to be seen what Conte does to cope with his absence as he has been an integral figure in their success this season.
However, one thing that the Italian won’t accept is a lack of commitment from any of his players, with Sky Sports reporting that the Spanish striker hasn’t trained for the last three days after he was the subject of a £30m-a-year offer from a club in China.
It’s added in that report that owner Roman Abramovich has no intention of selling Costa, who has two years remaining on his contract with the Premier League giants and was seemingly settled and ready to fire them to the title this season after such a strong start.
That plan has taken a blow this week though following the row, with Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol revealing that Conte ended his bust-up with Costa by shouting: “Go to China!”.
Diego Costa bust up at Chelsea ended with head coach Antonio Conte shouting at him: "Go to China!" #CFC
— Kaveh Solhekol (@SkyKaveh) January 13, 2017
Costa has scored 14 goals so far this season to lead the goalscoring charts for the club, and given that their 13-game winning streak was ended with a defeat at Tottenham Hotspur last time out in the league, they will be desperate to bounce back against Leicester.
However, their title rivals will be licking their lips at the opportunity of potentially closing the gap further, although Costa tried his best to downplay the controversy after taking to Instagram on Friday night to show his support for the club and his teammates.
It would seem that the most sensible decision for both parties would be for Costa to remain until the end of the season, help Chelsea win another title, and then leave for the riches of the Chinese Super League.
With a few weeks to go until the deadline passes though, anything could happen as Conte will look to find a solution to the problem.