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Zappacosta 'open to leaving Chelsea for Serie A'

  /  autty

The Blues defender has spent a long time on the fringes at Stamford Bridge since his surprise deadline day move in 2017 as he weighs up his options

Davide Zappacosta is open to leaving Chelsea and moving back to Serie A but he faces a month of uncertainty with the Serie A transfer window not set to close until September.

The 27-year-old has yet to receive a concrete offer from another club although interest is expected to heat up once the Premier League transfer window closes on August 8.

Joao Cancelo could still leave Juventus, which may spark a host of moves at right-back across the transfer market in Italy and Europe.

This could propel Italy international Zappacosta into talks with clubs in his home country, which would be his preferred destination after a two-year stint in England.

Lazio have dropped their interest in Zappacosta after they made a loan offer with an option to buy for £13.5 million (£16m) in January as they have since signed Manuel Lazzari from SPAL instead.

Chelsea are unconcerned about delays over resolving Zappacosta's future as they have decided on Reece James as their alternative right-back.

James is expected back in training in the next two to three weeks following an ankle ligament injury and new manager Frank Lampard is keen to keep the pathway open for the 19-year-old after an impressive loan spell at Wigan Athletic last season.

Chelsea will only be allowed to register 17 foreign players for the Champions League this season and have been in talks to reduce the number by selling several stars.

Kurt Zouma and Michy Batshuayi are set to stay after coming back from loan spells from Everton and Crystal Palace respectively. This leaves Chelsea needing to offload either Zappacosta, Kenedy or Tiemoue Bakayoko, who have all featured heavily under Lampard in pre-season.

Zappacosta has made 52 appearances for Chelsea since joining two years ago in a £23m ($28m) move from Torino, but he has only started in 65 per cent of those games.

He has consistently been used as a back-up for either Victor Moses or Cesar Azpilicueta under both Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri in his time in west London.

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