Napoli and Milan play against Juventus and Roma today, but are among the most affected clubs by injuries and COVID, along with Hellas Verona.
The Azzurri travelled to Turin yesterday without several regular starters: Victor Osimhen, Mario Rui, Alex Meret, Hirving Lozano and Kevin Malcuit have COVID, same as coach Luciano Spalletti.
Fabian Ruiz is injured, Kalidou Koulibaly and Zambo Anguissa are on Africa Cup of Nations duty. Piotr Zielinski, Amir Rrahmani and Stanis Lobotka have been ordered into quarantine as they haven’t yet had the booster, so they must self-isolate for a week even if they travelled to Turin with the team.
COVID Chaos: Napoli stars quarantined after travel, others wear masks against Juventus?
The situation is quite chaotic. Napoli are without their starting centre-backs (Rrahmani and Koulibaly), centre midfielders (Zielinski, Anguissa and Fabian Ruiz), and centre forward even if Osimhen has been out of action with a cheekbone injury for more than a month now.
Giovanni Di Lorenzo should start at centre-back with Juan Jesus with the young Alessandro Zanoli at right-back and Faouzi Ghoulam on the left. The latter hasn’t played an entire game in Serie A since February 2021.
Probable Napoli XI (4-2-3-1): Ospina; Zanoli, Di Lorenzo, Juan Jesus, Ghoulam; Demme, Elmas; Politano, Mertens, Insigne; Petagna.
Milan are not in a better situation ahead of their clash against Roma at 17.30 UK time.
They announced three COVID cases yesterday who are believed to be Fikayo Tomori, Alessio Romagnoli and Davide Calabria. With Simon Kjaer ruled out until the end of the season with a knee injury, Stefano Pioli is without his regular starters in centre defence, so Pierre Kalulu and Matteo Gabbia should get the nod against José Mourinho’s side today.
Even if the Rossoneri coach can count on Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ante Rebic and Rafael Leao up front, Franck Kessié, Fode Ballo-Touré and Ismael Bennacer are on international duty at the AFCON and are not available for today’s match.
Hellas Verona have eight players positive for COVID ahead of their match against Spezia, but they were given the green light to travel to the Stadio Picco for today’s match, which kicks off at 13.30 UK time.
No fair, but it is what it is. I’m thinking either cancel all matches or force all clubs to play even with youth team players. Situation should be the same for all.
@Milan Fan
Agreed. I’m torn on the idea with the youth players tough, on one hand this can be a great opportunity for them and draw some attention to the otherwise completely neglected youth academies but on the other with so many positive cases we might be exposing the youngsters to a desease which could potentially do long-term damage to the lungs…
I sympathize with players missing due to the virus. But I don’t sympathize with the clubs because of players missing because of AFCON. Buy Italian players and you will avoid that.
Forget about covid, can we cancel all Milan games until someone finds where our form went?
@Brandon – buy Italian players? Like…? Who is the Italian Oshimen, Anguissa, Koulibaly, Kessie?
These are players who enhance Serie A, despite being away temporarily. Italian football has deeper problems than buying Italian (a nationalist solution which misses the actual problem) – the production line isn’t there and these aren’t the glory days of Italian football anymore.
Agreed about this all italian talk.
You think Inter without Fenomeno or Milan without Kaka, MVB or Rijkaard would be great historic teams?
Italy had more time to prepare for euro, they used it correctly. But all italian teams play in serie b, you are welcome to stop your complaining mouth and go to serie b site
@DB. Agreed. And also find out wtf happened to Milan Lab.
@Vero Sherlock Holmes couldn’t figure that one out. Might be best to bury that place in concrete like the reactor in Chernobyl and just move on.
Milan Lab was converted to a meth lab instead…. because no one seems to stay healthy anymore.