Malick Thiaw and Fikayo Tomori will be Milan‘s only centre-backs available in the next few weeks so the Rossoneri boss Stefano Pioli is ready to promote Jan-Carlo Simic and Davide Bartesaghi from the Primavera squad.
Simon Kjaer, Marco Pellegrino and Pierre Kalulu have all suffered injuries lately and the Frenchman will likely remain out of action for four months. Pellegrino won’t be back before mid-December, at least, while Kjaer sustained a muscle injury before Sunday’s game against Napoli, so he’ll be forced on the sidelines for a few weeks. Mattia Caldara is also unavailable for several months.
This means Thiaw and Tomori are the only centre-backs available for Milan in the next few games.
According to several Italian sources, including Sportmediaset, the Rossoneri won’t sign a new centre-back as a free agent before January, so the likes of Jerome Boateng or Shkodran Mustafi are not going to move to the Stadio Meazza.
On the other hand, Pioli will promote Primavera defenders Simic and Bartesaghi. The latter made his Serie A debut with the Rossoneri earlier this season and has already made three appearances with the first team this term. However, the 17-year-old is a natural left-back, so he must adapt to a new role.
Simic, 18, plays as a centre-back for the Rossoneri’s Primavera squad but has yet to make his senior debut. According to Sportmediaset, Rade Krunic and Davide Calabria could also be placed in central defence in some games to rotate and avoid injuries to Thiaw and Tomori.
Milan’s next games are against Udinese and Lecce in Serie A and PSG in the Champions League before the international break in November.