Morata's mysterious injury is becoming a concern in England
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte confirmed that the Spaniard has a back injury but a video of the player dancing with wife Alice Campello has fanned the flames.
These are not the best of times for Álvaro Morata, in fact it's arguably the most testing moment he's been through since joining Chelsea last summer. The Spanish centre-forward has not featured in Antonio Conte's squad lists since mid-January and this week, the Blues manager announced that the player is carrying a back injury. "I don't know [when he'll be back] because he has this problem and we tried a lot to find a solution to solve the pain in his back. If you ask me, he needs a month, a day, two months, the rest of the season... I don't know. I'm a bit worried because he's an importan player for us. We're trying to find a solution".
Morata's wife uploads video
However, shortly after Conte made those comments, Morata's wife Alice uploaded a video on one of her social networking accounts which showed the couple dancing and at one point, the player lifts his wife who then wraps her legs around his waist. The images haven't gone down well at all with Chelsea fans, who want to see more commitment from the player and cannot understand what he is doing dancing when he's supposed to be recovering from a delicate back injury. In England, the Daily Mail published a piece on the video which some Chelsea fans reacted to negatively.
Morata gives explanation for problematic video
Morata reacted by explaining: "It's an old video. I'm not injured, I'm ok for tomorrow's game. A lot of critics now but no problem for me!" he wrote on Sunday night.
Morata's last game was the meeting with Norwich on 17 January in which he was ended up being sent off. Since then he has missed three Premier League games, one in the FA Cup and one in the EFL Carabao Cup. It still hasn't been confirmed if he will be back in time for next week's Champions League first leg tie against Barcelona. Olivier Giroud, who joined Chelsea in last month's transfer window, has been brought in to give Morata competition for a place in the side. The ex-Real Madrid player had been Conte's first choice striker since he joined the club in an 80 million euro deal last summer. He's contributed 10 goals and made four assists in 20 Premier League games - many Chelsea fans want to see him back in the side and showing that kind of productivity again...
