Drogba rues departure talk

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The star striker shocked the Blues on Wednesday on Friday when he said he wanted to leave in an interview with France Football magazine.

But, in a massive climbdown, he now regrets making his views public. Drogba declared: "On reflection, I regret making the comments I made in a recent interview public at this time."

He added: "I am a Chelsea player and will be 100% committed and supportive to my manager, my team-mates and the club. I will not be discussing my future any further until I meet privately with the club at the end of the season."

Drogba, who scored 33 goals last season, had earlier claimed "something was broken" at Chelsea following Jose Mourinho's departure and revealed he wanted to follow the Portuguese coach out of Stamford Bridge.

New boss Avram Grant steadfastly refused to make any comment on Drogba's controversial remarks at the club's pre-Middlesbrough media gathering on Friday - insisting he wanted to speak with the Ivory Coast forward first.

The club are hoping the player's climbdown, almost certainly the result of a meeting between Grant and Drogba after training on Friday, will go some way to quelling any further dressing-room unrest.

Grant had earlier said: "I have not seen him yet. I need to do that first. It is internal business.

"I cannot tell you anything until I speak with him. Basically I don't like to speak about players in the paper, I like to discuss it with them. I have read many things that were not true, because I was on the inside, about problems in the dressing room.

"Now you know there was no problem in the dressing room until now and I hope it will continue like that. This attitude has brought us good results in a very difficult time."