Filipe Luis has said that the Atletico Madrid players are counting down the days until Diego Costa can play for them again.

The striker re-joined Atletico in September, but cannot play for the Spanish outfit until January due to Atletico's transfer ban, much to the frustration of his new (or technically speaking, soon to be) teammates.

Luis, who himself has shared a similar career path to Costa, having moved from Atletico to Chelsea and then back to Atletico voiced his irritations about not being able to let the striker loose just yet.

“It’s frustrating seeing him playing like an animal, but he can’t play,” he said.

“It's just a month until he can play with us and he will help us a lot. I don't have any doubts about it.

“He knows the club, he knows the way we play. He has already adapted. I know it was difficult times for him and for Chelsea.”

Costa spent three seasons at Chelsea, and was prolific throughout his stay in West London, grabbing 52 goals in 89 league games, but each season seemed to be marred by controversy of one kind or another.

Whether it was due backlash from his aggressive, malevolent style of football, stories connecting him to internal club strife or rumours linking him with the exit door, Costa found it very hard it stay out of the headlines during his stay in England.

After pushing for a move away half-way through Chelsea’s title winning campaign last season, Chelsea boss Antonio Conte decided that he’d look to replace the centre forward in the next window.

After an alleged text message from Conte informing him that he wasn’t part of his plans for the new season, Costa went AWOL at the start of the summer, flew to his home-town in Brazil and refused to return for Chelsea to train, demanding a move back to Atletico Madrid.

In the end, Chelsea found a replacement in Alvaro Morata and Costa got his move, despite the transfer embargo, but as Filipe Luis himself described it, “now everybody’s happy.”

He went on to say: “Diego is a huge player for me, because he scores a lot of goals and important goals.

“He really wanted to come back to Atletico. That's the reason he came back.

“He was happy here. He did his job really well. His most important desire was to come back.”