There are reports Atalanta will be without striker Duvan Zapata for at least a month after spraining his knee.
According to L’Eco di Bergamo newspaper and Sportitalia, the Colombia international’s knock proved worse than previously thought.
Although the official statement on the club website only notes that he is training separately from the group, the suggestion is that this could be a serious setback.
It can also have a knock-on effect for the transfer market, as Duvan Zapata is Inter’s first choice to replace Romelu Lukaku.
La Dea have set an asking price of at least €30m plus bonuses, which the Nerazzurri are seemingly not prepared to pay.
The 30-year-old forward will also miss the upcoming World Cup qualifiers in Colombia.
Atalanta was really lucky with injuries. I don’t remember and serious injury for their top players in the last 3 seasons so will this be the moment they fall out of CL? Not wishing to jinx it but 1st Hateboor now Duvan …
Tolói was out for the last three months of 2018–19. Duván was out for three months in 2019–20, including some decisive CL matches. Iličić was out between July and October 2020 and only showed flashes of his best form since. Not to mention the Gómez case and how everyone thought at the time the team would fall out of the CL race.
And yet the team still qualified to the CL and saw an explosion of Muriel, Malinovskyi, and Pessina last season. The team hasn’t invested substantially in improving the squad this summer, though neither have most of the top 7, so the title/CL/EL race will probably be just as tight. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Atalanta was lucky in any of these regards though.