Roberto Mancini confirms Sassuolo striker Gianluca Scamacca has been ruled out of the North Macedonia match with a muscular problem.
The World Cup play-off semi-final kicks off in Palermo at 19.45 GMT.
The winners of that tie will go on to face either Portugal or Turkey for a place at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Mancini named the final 23-man squad for this game, as only 12 are allowed on the bench, and had to leave out quite a few surprise names.
These included Scamacca, Nicolò Zaniolo and Andrea Belotti, but there is a good reason for the Sassuolo hitman’s absence.
“He is improving a great deal, but at the end of the training session he had a slight muscular issue, so we need to evaluate his condition,” Mancini told Radio RAI.
Italy squad
Goalkeepers: Alessio Cragno (Cagliari), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Salvatore Sirigu (Genoa)
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Mattia De Sciglio (Juventus), Emerson Palmieri (Lyon), Alessandro Florenzi (Milan), Gianluca Mancini (Roma)
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Jorginho (Chelsea), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Atalanta), Sandro Tonali (Milan), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain);
Forwards: Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Sassuolo)
North Macedonia squad
Goalkeepers: Stole Dimitrievski (Rayo Vallecano), Damjan Siskovski (Doxa), Kristijan Naumovski (Shkupi)
Defenders: Stefan Ristovski (Dinamo Zagreb), Darko Velkoski (Rijeka), Visar Musliu (Ingolstadt), Kire Ristevski (AEL), Todor Todorovski (Sered), Stefan Askovski (Sepsi), Nikola Serafimov (ZTE)
Midfielders: Arijan Ademi (Dinamo Zagreb), Enis Bardhi (Levante), Stefan Spirovski (MTK Budapest), Jani Atanasov (Hajduk Split), Boban Nikolov (Sheriff Tiraspol), David Babunski (Debreceni VSC)
Forwards: Milan Ristovski (Spartak Trnava), Bojan Miovski (MTK Budapest), Darko Churlinov (Schalke), Aleksandar Trajkovski (Al-Fayha), Valon Ethemi (Istanbulspor), Dorian Babunski (Debreceni VSC)
Scamacca out con la Macedonia, Mancini spiega: “Leggero risentimento muscolare dopo la rifinitura” https://t.co/ohdeb0LZHS
— TUTTOmercatoWEB (@TuttoMercatoWeb) March 24, 2022