Costa available for Hull City, "Conte"


Antonio Conte has confirmed Diego Costa is in contention to play for Chelsea against Hull City on Sunday, live on Sky Sports.

The Spain striker returned to training with the Premier League leaders this week after missing their 3-0 win at Leicester last Saturday.

Although the official reason given for his absence then was a back injury, Sky sources understand Costa was involved in a training ground row with Conte last week.

That came against the backdrop of a £30m-a-year offer from Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian.

According to Chelsea, Costa worked with a fitness coach on Sunday and Monday in order to recover from the back problem they reported.

He then had an hour-long meeting with Conte at the club's Cobham training base on Tuesday and he could now return against Marco Silva's side on Sunday.

The Italian head coach said: "I think the player wants to stay at Chelsea. He is very happy to play with us.

"This idea (the move to China) is far in his mind. He's happy to stay here and this is the most important thing for us."

Asked if the forward would be at Chelsea for the rest of the season, Conte added: "Yeah. I don't see any problem about him.

Costa has scored a number of crucial goals for Chelsea again this season, including the overhead kick against Swansea

"After the game against Leicester, I told you the truth and I repeat, I heard a lot of speculation about Diego.

"But now, the most important thing is he trained with us this week and he hasn't pain in his back and he is able to come back into our squad against Hull City.

"Diego is an important player for us. When he stays in good form, he has always played for me. We'll see on Sunday [if he starts]. I don't want to give an advantage to our opponents."

If Costa does feature against Hull, he will make his 100th appearance for Chelsea. In his previous 99 outings, he has 50 goals - a return of just over one in every two matches.

At present, he is the Premier League's joint-leading scorer alongside Manchester United's Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Arsenal attacker Alexis Sanchez on 14 goals.

Conte said: "It is a great achievement for him, 100 appearances playing for the same team is fantastic. I hope to celebrate his 100th appearance with a win."

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