Injury problems reportedly are looming on Italian national team camp ahead of their Euro Qualifying match against Serbia on Friday, October after reports from the media suggested that Gli Azzurri will likely to be playing without the likes of Giampaolo Pazzini, Domenico Criscito, Mario Balotelli, Federico Balzaretti and maybe even Giuseppe Rossi.
The Italian media revealed that those players especially Pazzini, Balotelli and Criscito who are confirmed to be leaving the national team training camp and send back to their clubs in order to receive more intensive care for their injuries.
Criscito picked up a groin injury since Tuesday, Pazzini can’t seem to shake of his ankle problem until today, while Balotelli recently picked up a back injury after the Azzurri did a try out match against Italian under 20 side. That match also saw Rossi hit with a knee problem but the latest reports suggested that the Villarreal player can still recover at least for the national team’s second Euro qualifier match against North Ireland, next week.
According to the latest reports, after the likes of Criscito, Pazzini and Balotelli are being send home, Azzurri’s tactician, Cesare Prandelli, is planning to call up replacement players for those three names as the likes of Angelo Ogbonna and Pablo Osvaldo are reportedly being the ones called up as replacement. Luckily for Italy, their upcoming matches in the competition doesn’t really have an effect anymore since they already confirmed their qualification in previous game against Slovenia.
That’s why the absence of several names for the match against Serbia or even North Ireland won’t not be that significant for Italy but on contrary it’s a do or die fixture for those two countries as both are eying to finish as runners up behing Gli Azzurri. Moreover, Prandelli reportedly isn’t really keen on giving easy victories for any of Italy’s upcoming opponents, especially since a good result in an official game such as the Euro qualifier would definitely help improving the Azzurri’s reputation and FIFA ranks.
