Chelsea face the prospect of paying outcast Diego Costa’s wages until JANUARY as the forward does not want to join AC Milan on loan.
Instead of offloading the striker the champions could be shelling out a reported £185,000-a-week until he leaves next year.
That’s around another £3.7million the Blues could pay the Spaniard for doing nothing.
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SunSport have been told, despite his agent Jorge Mendes holding meetings in the Italian capital with Milan top brass, Costa is still holding out for a return to Atletico Madrid by any means necessary.
The Italian giants have offered him an escape route out of West London – but only on a long-term deal.
Costa, 28, was the club’s top scorer last term with 22 goals – but has no future at Stamford Bridge under Antonio Conte.
The Blues boss decided to axe him in January following their training ground spat amid speculation he wanted to move to Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian.
The striker – who has two years left on his contract – has been training alone while the rest of the squad have been away on their pre-season tour of the Far East.
Costa has made his feelings known on social media when he “liked” the club’s official Instagram picture of Alavaro Morata’s signing being announced.
The forward is still sunning himself in his native Brazil and is hoping super-agent Mendes can find a way for him to get back to Spain, without having to get there via Italy.
Even the prospect of a mooted loan stint in Italy until Atletico’s transfer embargo is lifted in January is not exactly filling the striker with joy.
And he still could end up back at Chelsea’s Cobham training base until the next transfer window opens.
That could be unlikely though as Conte would not want him disrupting his squad as he looks to defend the Premier League title.
So Costa could yet be spending more time training on his own back in South America at the huge expense of the champions.
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