Italy release six players ahead of Turkey trip

Italy will go to Turkey for their friendly match without Marco Verratti, Jorginho, Ciro Immobile, Lorenzo Insigne, Domenico Berardi and Gianluca Mancini.

This game has been organised for the FIFA world rankings between the two sides who lost the World Cup play-off semi-finals.

The Azzurri were beaten 1-0 by North Macedonia and Turkey fell 3-1 in Portugal.

Verratti had already left the training camp at Coverciano this morning for an early return to PSG due to fatigue.

At the end of this afternoon’s session, coach Roberto Mancini also released Jorginho, Immobile and Insigne, while Berardi and Gianluca Mancini picked up minor injuries during the loss to North Macedonia.

All six players released today had been in the starting XI on Thursday evening in Palermo.

It is not yet clear whether Gianluca Scamacca, Andrea Belotti, Nicolò Zaniolo or Leonardo Bonucci will be available against Turkey, as they were not even on the bench with North Macedonia.

Goalkeepers: Alessio Cragno (Cagliari), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Pierluigi Gollini (Tottenham), Salvatore Sirigu (Genoa)

Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Cristiano Biraghi (Fiorentina), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Mattia De Sciglio (Juventus), Emerson Palmieri (Lyon), Alessandro Florenzi (Milan), Luiz Felipe (Lazio)

Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Atalanta), Stefano Sensi (Sampdoria), Sandro Tonali (Milan)

Forwards: Andrea Belotti (Torino), Joao Pedro (Cagliari), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Sassuolo), Gianluca Scamacca (Sassuolo) Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio), Nicolò Zaniolo (Roma)