Chelsea striker Morata could be out for the rest of the season

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has revealed he is worried about the extent of Alvaro Morata’s back injury and doesn’t know if he will play again this season.

Morata has missed Chelsea’s last five matches since being sent off in an FA Cup replay against Norwich midway through January due to a reoccurrence of a back injury that has troubled him in the past.

The Spain international has been ruled out of Saturday’s home clash against Premier League strugglers West Brom and Conte has conceded the club’s medical staff are struggling to find a solution for Morata's injury.

“Giroud has trained and will be in contention,” the London Evening Standard quote Conte as saying on Friday. “We are talking a lot about bad results, but sometimes we forget we are facing a serious situation.

“Players like Morata, for us, are very important and have been missing for a long period of time. I don’t know how long he will be out.

“We are struggling a lot to find a solution to solve the pain in his back. If you ask me whether he needs a day, a month or the rest of the season, I don’t know. I don’t know. For this reason, I’m a bit worried. You know very well the importance of the player.”

Morata was going through a lean spell of form prior to injury, missing several clear-cut goalscoring opportunities.

The 25-year-old has scored 10 goals in 20 Premier League appearances since joining from Real Madrid in a club-record deal over the summer.

However, since the start of October, Morata averages a goal every 292 minutes of competitive action. Prior to then, he netted every 124 minutes of action.