Conte drops Costa, Matic from Chelsea’s pre-season tour

Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte, will not take Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic along, when the club flies next week for their pre-season tour of Asia.

Both players have been linked with exits from Stamford Bridge in recent weeks.

Costa has not reported back for pre-season training this week, after he was given permission to extend his holiday, as he tries to seal a move back to Atletico Madrid.

Matic has been at the Chelsea training ground, but has mostly trained alone and has not been involved in Conte’s team sessions.

Juventus, who tried to sign the Serbia midfielder last year, have revived their interest and Conte would prefer to see him sold to Italy than to Manchester United who are also interested.

The Blues are reluctant to sell Matic to United, after Jose Mourinho hijacked their move for Romelu Lukaku.