Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has no regrets over replacing Diego Costa with Alvaro Morata

Striking claim | Conte says he does not regret losing Diego Costa for Alvaro Morata
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Vaishali Bhardwaj24 January 2018

Antonio Conte believes Chelsea made a wise decision by letting Diego Costa go and signing a younger replacement in Alvaro Morata, but admitted the Spaniard's back injury is a "real problem" for the Blues.

Chelsea signed Morata, then 24, for an initial £58m fee from Real Madrid last summer as they prepared to allow Costa to return to Atletico Madrid.

Costa, who is four years older than Morata, eventually did just that after sealing a £60m move to Diego Simeone's side in September, which left Morata with the task of being Chelsea's first-choice striker.

The Spaniard initially impressed at Chelsea, scoring on his Premier League debut against Burnley and following it up with a further nine top-flight goals - including a hat-trick away to Stoke City.

But the 25-year-old has looked shy of confidence in recent weeks and has missed a number of chances to score - including three against Arsenal in the Premier League at the beginning of this month, which would have won the game for Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium.

Morata missed Chelsea's trip to Brighton on Saturday through suspension and will now sit out the Blues' EFL Cup semi-final second leg clash against Arsenal on Wednesday with a back injury.

But Conte still believes Chelsea conducted good business in letting Costa go and signing Morata last summer.

He told reporters: "For a striker, to spend 55m Euros [£58m] on a young player like Morata, and selling Costa for 60m [£60m] Euros, a player older than Morata... that was a good sign for the club."

It is believed that Morata picked up his back issue last Friday, a day before Chelsea took on Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

Conte admits he doesn't know how serious the injury is, but hopes Morata will be fully fit again soon because of his lack of striking options in his squad.

"If you remember, in the past, he stopped himself for a problem in his back. A pain in the back. Now this pain has come back," Conte said.

"I hope it's not serious. But this is the second game that he stopped. He wasn't available against Brighton because this problem was there the day before as well [regardless of his suspension]."

In Pictures | Brighton vs Chelsea | 20/01/2018

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When then asked whether this back injury has been the reason why Morata hasn't looked at his best in recent weeks, Conte replied: "I don't know but, for sure, he's having this problem now.

"Now he's with the medical department to try and solve this problem and give him the opportunity to have a training session without pain.

"But this is the real problem now - not that he's not scoring or that his confidence is down. For every striker, you can pass this type of moment.

"But the real problem now is he has to overcome this problem in his back. I hope to solve this problem very quickly because we need Alvaro. We need Alvaro's commitment."

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