Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti said Lorenzo Insigne was benched as a precaution in the 1-0 win over Salernitana. ‘There’s no case’.
The captain was on the bench for the match in Salerno, when Piotr Zielinski’s goal decided the match for the Partenopei.
Spalletti’s men kept their eighth clean sheet and applied pressure on Milan ahead of the Rossoneri’s game against Roma at the Olimpico in the Italian capital tonight.
Serie A | Salernitana 0-1 Napoli: Zielinski wins fiery derby
The Partenopei, however, played with Dries Mertens up front against the newly promoted side and, ahead of the game, Spalletti admitted the team’s ‘characteristics’ is different without Insigne and Victor Osimhen in the line-up.
Insigne was an unused substitute on Sunday, but the coach stressed it was to ‘avoid any risks’ after discussing it with the Italy international.
“Insigne has a muscular fatigue, he’s at risk of getting hurt,” the coach said. “He manages himself, he looks at how the game is going.
“I decided to keep him out, avoiding any risk. Yesterday, in training, he felt mixed up, I made him decide: do you want to play now, or see later? He told me, as a mature footballer, that if he was needed, he would risk it. There’s no case.”