Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini confirms his injury is not serious: ‘I stopped myself in time.’
Chiellini suffered a flexor injury against Switzerland on Wednesday and will miss Italy’s third group stage game against Wales on Sunday.
“I am feeling quite well, it’s nothing serious. I’ll rest for a few days and then we’ll see. Let’s say I stopped myself in time,” Chiellini told UEFA.com.
The Azzurri won the opening two games of the group stage and are unbeaten in the last 29 matches.
“We are improving, there is positive energy, we are helping each other and it’s something that goes beyond the starting XI. When the European Championships were postponed last year, I immediately said we would benefit from it. Many players have improved since and we are more mature,” the 36-year-old claimed.
“We’ll face difficult games and strong opponents, but we are ready. We’ll play the rest of the tournament with serenity, enthusiasm and balance.
“Leo [Bonucci] and I have been playing together for many years, we have a special feeling. We don’t even need to look at each other, but the others are really strong too.
“Acerbi has always played well, and the same is true of Toloi, Bastoni and Di Lorenzo. We are a united group and we are living this adventure with happiness. You can see our passion.”
“It’s important to be a point of reference for other players, they give a lot to me. There is enthusiasm and it was great to play in Rome, after what happened in the last year, 15-16,000 fans at the stadium seem 100,000. Playing at home gives us that extra motivation.”
Italy have already booked their place for the Round of 16 and will win their group if they don’t lose against Wales on Sunday.
“They are a great team, I am happy for [Aaron] Ramsey because he scored and because he’s had that consistency that he lacked at Juventus. Nobody has ever had doubts about his qualities, he always in the right place at the right time. He is an exceptional person.
“Wales have been playing together for many years, we all know [Gareth] Bale, they’ve gone through some little changes, but not revolutions.
“We have qualified for the knock-out stage and now we want to win our group. At that point, if we win the group, we’ll see if we have to face Austria or Ukraine.”