AWOL Chelsea Striker Diego Costa Refuses to Return to Training Ground to Clear Out Locker

With his heart being set on a move back to Atletico Madrid this summer, Chelsea's outcast Diego Costa has supposedly refused to return to the club's Cobham-based training facility to clear out his locker - according to a report provided by The Sun. 

The 28-year-old has subsequently said that any of his possessions within the locker are up for grabs for his fiends to claim, after the attacker was told that he in-fact has no future at Stamford Bridge since his personal feud with Blues boss Antonio Conte began earlier this summer.

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The pressing matter has since reached a stumbling block, however, as Chelsea are allegedly reluctant to sell the hit-man unless he reports back for duty.

But Costa revealed last week that he felt as though he was being treated like a 'criminal' by his current employers, after stressing his desire to return to Atleti to ply his trade for Diego Simeone.

Instead of reporting back to pre-season training, Brazilian-born Costa, who represents Spain at international level, returned to the land of his roots in the summer break to train alone, and has posted videos on social media of his progress in the past.

He has also published a video of himself running on a treadmill sporting a pair of Chelsea shorts, despite his dismay with the Premier League outfit, as he prepares for a potential return to La Liga.

Los Colchoneros are serving a transfer ban which runs until 2018, though, and whereas the club can still sign players under the punishment, they will ultimately not be able to appear for the outfit until the ban is lifted.