Alvaro Morata had to go off against Manchester City (Picture: Getty)

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has provided some encouraging injury news about Alvaro Morata after being forced to take the Spanish striker off against Manchester City.

The Blues were forced to play over an hour without their top scorer, who appeared to suffer a hamstring problem against City in the first half.

Discussing the injury afterwards, Conte said it was a ‘muscular’ issue and that Morata himself requested to come off in order to avoid it getting worse.

The Italian tactician says, however, that he believes that it doesn’t look like too serious a concern and that subbing the 24-year-old off was a wise choice in that aspect.

Morata, 24, was a big miss for Chelsea as they lost to City (Picture: Getty)

Still, Conte took the opportunity once again to bemoan his players’ lack of rest since a tough game against Atletico Madrid in midweek, saying he didn’t want to rest Morata for another important match today.

‘It’s a muscular problem. I don’t think it’s serious because he stopped before it could become serious,’ Conte said.

‘He said “I prefer to stop otherwise I risk having a bad injury”.

Morata has been in fine form for Chelsea since his summer move from Real Madrid (Picture: Getty)

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‘It is normal when you play three games in only seven days to consider this aspect, but we needed to take this risk because Morata is an important player for us.’

Conte added that he believes Morata will not be fit enough to play for Spain in the upcoming international break.

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