A move for Diego Costa from Atlético Madrid to Chelsea in the offseason is appearing more likely with Sky Bet removing the wager from its boards.

Sky Bet’s head of football trading Paul Wiggins said: “We’ve seen an unusually high amount of bets on Costa joining Chelsea, especially given we’re some way off the transfer window re-opening.

“We made Chelsea 5/2 favorites when we opened the market and they have been heavily backed over the weekend at odds as short as 4/7, forcing us to suspend the market.”

Costa will reportedly cost in excess of £35 million.