Towards Italy-Switzerland. Muscle trouble for the center forward, in his place Scamacca
FLORENCE. Bad news for Roberto Mancini. After Lorenzo Pellegrini and Nicolò Zaniolo, Ciro Immobile also leaves Coverciano, the top scorer of the championship who in the morning had flaunted all his desire to leave his mark in the decisive challenge with Switzerland scheduled for Friday in Rome, applying to be “the center forward of Italy at the next World Cup ». Instead, after the investigations carried out yesterday, Immobile, which in recent weeks had remained at rest due to fatigue but then recovered for the Europa League matches with Marseille and the championship with Salernitana, had to forfeit, pack up and leave the collection : the result of the exams speaks of “suffering affecting the soleus muscle of the left leg”, a problem that emerged in the last few days that makes him unavailable for the last two matches of 2021 for the national team, precisely the play-off with Switzerland and the subsequent away match with Northern Ireland, both valid for world qualifiers.
At least 4 points are needed for Italy to finish at the top of Group C and directly access Qatar 2022. And the goals of Immobile, the current top scorer in Serie A with 10 goals and the most prolific Italian forward among those in activity, would have served the cause. and also to himself, to silence those who have often targeted him «making me suffer. When you wear this shirt, criticism is part of the game and I accept it but I’m sorry not to have had the same treatment at times as others, it seemed that I was not one of the 26 who won the European Championship and this is a beautiful and good evil ” . For sure Immobile will do everything to achieve yet another goal he has set in his head: “Going to the World Cup would represent the worthy end of a cycle, we all care very much and we work to qualify avoiding the playoffs: the disappointment of 2017 erased from my memory ».
Meanwhile, on Friday he will have to limit himself to being a fan: the Sassuolo striker Scamacca has been called in his place and Andrea Belotti is back in the group after the recent exclusions, on Friday it will be the turn of one of the two unless Mancini decides to field Italy with the false nine.