The big story: Costa faces tough road reintegration

Chelsea striker Diego Costa faces an uphill battle to get back to the Blues setup after clashing with coach Antonio Conte and the club’s medical staff, reports The Guardian.

Costa missed Chelsea’s previous encounter – a comfortable 3-0 win against Leicester City – and Conte is likely to go with a a forward line of Eden Hazard, Pedro Rodriguez and Willian as the attacking trio for the table-toppers’ game against Hull City.

Costa has been a target for Chinese Super League club Tianjin Quanjian, who are rumoured to be ready with a £30 million-a-year offer to the Spanish striker.

Other top stories

Cricket:

  • England spinner Monty Panesar has been signed on as a spin consultant by Australia ahead of their tour against India. Steve Smith’s side have picked two left-arm spinners for the tour in Steve O’Keefe and Ashton Agar.
  • Panesar will not be the only foreign consultant for Australia during the tour with former Indian all-rounder Sridharan Sriram also being recruited. Sriram has worked with Aussie spinners in the past too. The Australians have picked as many as four spinners for the India tour.
  • England talisman Joe Root has urged his side to come up with “individual” plans to stop Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s run glut in the second One-day International in Cuttack.
  • Australian pacer Pat Cummins admitted that he would not make the cut for his country for their upcoming India tour, given that he had not played a single Sheffield Shield game since coming back from injury. Cummins recently showed good form in the Big Bash League.

Football:

  • Manchester United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has backed  £89 million signing Paul Pobga to deal with pressure. The French midfielder came under a lot of criticism for a below-par performance in the 1-1 draw between United and Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday.
  • Manchester City have reportedly opened talks with Barcelona for a possible  £100 million move for Lionel Messi to Etihad. Talks of an extended contract between have broken down at the Catalan giants. If this deal goes through, Messi will earn a whopping  £800,000 a week. 
  • Former Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal has called it a day as a manager for “family reasons”. Van Gaal, who is currently out of work after being sacked by the Red Devils in the previous summer, has been linked with a move to the cash rich Chinese Super League in recent weeks.

Tennis:

  • In the Australian Open, six-time champion Serena Williams secured her passage to the second round by beating Switzerland teenager Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-3.
  • Briton Johanna Konta struggled in her opening game of the tournament but beat Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 7-5, 6-2.