Italy head coach Roberto Mancini opted against selecting Juventus regular Manuel Locatelli for the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against England and Malta.
The 25-year-old played an instrumental role in Italy’s triumphant Euro 2020 campaign, getting the nod in five of their seven matches in the tournament.
His last cap for the national team came against their upcoming opponents England in the Nations League back in June, but has not been called upon for any of their five matches since then.
In September, he stayed at home to recover from muscular fatigue and missed the friendlies in November due to personal reasons.
On this occasion though, Locatelli was fit and available for selection, but was not included in the squad Mancini announced on Friday evening.
As reported in Gazzetta dello Sport, the Juve mainstay was omitted due to an abundance of quality and quantity of available options in midfield.
The positions in the centre of the park are some of the few areas Mancini has the luxury of having too many options to choose from.
Despite the exclusion of Locatelli, Mancini has still been able to call up Nicolo Barella, Bryan Cristante, Davide Frattesi, Jorginho, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Matteo Pessina, Sandro Tonali and Marco Verratti.
Locatelli is not the only name unfortunate to be left out of the most recent squad selection, with teammate Nicolo Fagioli and recent Galatasaray signing Nicolo Zaniolo also being left at home.
Locatelli, however, remains on the stand-by list and could be called up as a replacement should any of the aforementioned midfielders drop out of the squad in the coming days.