Kenedy sent home from Chelsea tour over offensive Instagram posts to Chinese after club consult Antonio Conte

Chelsea have sent Kenedy home from their pre-season tour of the Far East as a punishment for his offensive Instagram posts in China.

Standard Sport revealed yesterday that Chelsea were planning to take further action on top of the heavy fine that had already been imposed and the Brazilian is now facing an uncertain future at Stamford Bridge.

Kenedy's messages in Portuguese were written a day before Chelsea played Arsenal in Beijing on Saturday.

One roughly translated as "f*** China" and another included a picture of a sleeping security guard to which he said "wake up China, idiot".

After coming under criticism from many followers on his page, the 21-year-old deleted what he wrote and apologised, but it was too late.

Kenedy was booed by the crowd in the Bird's Nest Stadium when he came on as a substitute against Arsenal.

Chelsea have taken a few days to decide whether he would remain with the squad or not.

They issued a long statement of apology themselves to China and their Chinese fanbase on Sunday, but have concluded that it was not enough and it would be wrong to keep Kenedy within the ranks.

Coach Antonio Conte was consulted about the decision and agreed that he should return to London.

It is understood that he left the club's base in Singapore early on Tuesday morning local time.

Influential Chinese newspaper The People's Daily wrote an editorial about the incident, strongly criticising both Kenedy and Chelsea.

They wrote: "China does not welcome a player like this; nor does China welcome a team like this.

"Kenedy's absurd comments are not only impolite but also uneducated. He has created an incident that has humiliated China, an incident that so many fans simply cannot tolerate."

When asked by Standard Sport yesterday if he had spoken to Kenedy about his behaviour, Conte said: "About Kenedy, he understood his mistake and he is sorry for this for sure."

Kenedy was already facing a tough battle to force his way into Conte's plans for next season.

Since joining the club from Fluminense for £6.3m in 2015, he has made just 22 appearances for the Blues, of which only two have come under Conte.

He joined Watford on a season-long loan deal last term, but sources at the club claimed he had an attitude problem and the left sided player played just one game before the deal was cut short.

Kenedy is a close friend of outgoing Chelsea striker Diego Costa and his game has not developed as the club had hoped over the past two years.

Conte included him on the tour because he was short of numbers, especially back-up for left wing back Marcos Alonso.

But Chelsea are still planning to sign another four players before the window shuts at the end of next month, with another left wing-back being made a top priority.

As this paper revealed on Friday, Chelsea will give Conte millions to spend to get his targets.

One of those is still Juventus left-back Alex Sandro, who has significantly not signed a new deal at the Serie A champions.

Conte also wants Swansea forward Fernando Llorente to be the back-up striker to Alvaro Morata, with one central midfielder and attacking wide player the other priorities.

It is believed that Chelsea are not looking at centre halfs because they see the other areas of the pitch as more of a necessity.

Chelsea have been keen to buy centre back Virgil van Dijk for several months, but are resigned that Southampton won't sell.

They feel that the £34m acquisition of Antonio Rudiger from Roma, combined with the return of highly rated Denmark international Andreas Christensen from a two-year loan at Borussia Monchengladbach, will give them enough options.

Rudiger, who was given extended time off after playing for Germany at the Confederations Cup, is officially joining up with his new team-mates in Singapore today.