Antonio Conte has no plans to seek out Diego Costa for specially arranged peace talks and will make the striker prove himself all over again before restoring him to his Chelsea starting line-up.

But even if Costa redoubles his efforts and wins back his place, Conte is likely to sanction his sale in the summer and allow the 28-year-old to cash in on Chinese interest.

Having missed the victory over Leicester City, Costa trained on his own on Sunday and Monday ahead of Conte and his first-team squad resuming work on Tuesday when the Spain international will have the back pain that sparked last week’s bust-up assessed.

Conte talks regularly with his squad and maintains an open door policy for his players, but he has not set aside time to summon Costa for a pre-planned heart-to-heart.