Diego Costa will spend this week trying to secure his return to Atletico Madrid after Chelsea allowed him to miss the start of pre-season training.

Chelsea’s players returned to work today, but the club and Costa’s representatives agreed that he would be given extra time to stay away.

As revealed by Telegraph Sport, Costa started to say his farewells to team-mates last week and told them he would be going back to Atletico.

Head coach Antonio Conte told Costa he was not part of his plans by text message at the start of the summer and there currently looks to be no way back for the Spain international.

It is unclear when Costa is scheduled to return, but the 28-year-old has been given extra time off to try to clinch a move back to Atletico.