Monaco are looking again at the possibility of ending the Chelsea striker Radamel Falcao's loan in London this month and bringing him back to his parent club to try to get him fit for the end of the French league season.
The Colombian has not played for Chelsea since October and his latest injury has been a thigh -problem that Guus Hiddink, the Chelsea manager, described as -"serious" last week. Falcao has scored just once since his move on loan in the summer and the club are now planning without him for the -foreseeable future.
He went back to Monaco for tests earlier this month but it was -revealed by the club Vice-President Vadim Vasilyev that the tests showed the 29-year-old to be too severely -injured. Since then a member of the Monaco technical staff has visited Falcao for discussions on bringing him back to the club with a view to getting him fit again.
Chelsea are still weighing the possibility of a move for the Brazilian striker Alessandro Pato to boost their depleted number of strikers. The former Brazil international is back at his club Corinthians, who are preparing for the start of the -domestic season but has not gone on tour with his new team-mates in the United States. Pato is one of a number of options that Chelsea are weighing along with the AC Milan striker Carlos Bacca.
Like a number of his Brazilian contemporaries, Pato also has an offer to play in China but believes he has something to offer in the -European game and wants to see what the interest is in him before he makes any decisions. Should Falcao and Monaco decide that there is no future for him at the club - he has a contract until 2018 - then China is also a likely destination for him.
Meanwhile, Andre Villas-Boas found Chelsea's sacking of Jose Mourinho "quite incredible".
The Portuguese left Stamford Bridge last month with Hiddink placed in interim control. Villas-Boas worked with his compatriot Mourinho at Chelsea earlier in his career and returned for an unsuccessful spell as manager in 2011.
The former Tottenham boss, now in charge of Zenit St Petersburg, told BeIN Sports: "It's been quite incredible to see that it (being -dismissed) was applied to everybody. It was applied to probably their dearest coach, their most -successful coach, so in the end we have seen nothing different. Roman has sacked basically every coach that he's had."