Napoli look to Arkadiusz Milik, Amin Younes and Adam Ounas for their trip to an Empoli side who just slipped into the bottom three.
It kicks off at the Stadio Castellani at 18.00 UK time (17.00 GMT).
Napoli look to Arkadiusz Milik, Amin Younes and Adam Ounas for their trip to an Empoli side who just slipped into the bottom three.
It kicks off at the Stadio Castellani at 18.00 UK time (17.00 GMT).
Carlo Ancelotti has to do without a host of injured players, including Lorenzo Insigne, Faouzi Ghoulam, David Ospina, Amadou Diawara, Raul Albiol and Vlad Chiriches.
Dries Mertens and Elseid Hysaj limped off during the 4-1 victory over Roma at the weekend, so are rested, with Kevin Malcuit and Ounas stepping in.
Piotr Zielinski returns from suspension against his former club, with Amin Younes getting his first Serie A start.
Empoli fell into the relegation zone on Sunday after an unlucky defeat to Juventus and Bologna’s sudden resurgence in form.
Coach Aurelio Andreazzoli was sacked, then brought back last month to replace Beppe Iachini, and is getting his team playing a more entertaining form of passing football.
Antonino La Gumina, Jacob Rasmussen, Kevin Diks and Levan Mchedlidze are ruled out, but many eyes are on midfielder Ismael Bennacer, who has been heavily linked with a move to Napoli.
Diego Farias and Francesco Caputo lead the attack, with Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Marko Pajac on the wings.
Goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski is a late injury absentee, so Ivan Provedel starts, who has not featured since a 1-0 defeat to Lazio on February 7.
Napoli have won their last four Serie A meetings with Empoli. It’s a high-scoring fixture, as in the last three Stadio Castellani encounters, both teams have found the net at least twice for a total 15 goals.
Empoli: Provedel; Maietta, Silvestre, Veseli; Di Lorenzo, Krunic, Bennacer, Traore, Pajac; Farias, Caputo
Empoli bench: Perucchini, Saro; Brighi, Antonelli, Pasqual, Capezzi, Oberlin, Ricci, Nikolaou, Belardinelli
Napoli: Meret; Malcuit, Luperto, Koulibaly, Mario Rui; Callejon, Allan, Zielinski, Younes; Ounas, Milik
Napoli bench: Fortunato D’Andrea, Karnezis, Zedadka, Fabian Ruiz, Verdi, Mertens, Gaetano, Maksimovic, Hysaj
Ref: Doveri