Italy have confirmed that defender Riccardo Calafiori will return to Arsenal after suffering a knee injury.
The full-back left the pitch in stoppage time of the 2-1 Nations League play-off defeat against Germany on Thursday night. While attempting to change direction, the Arsenal man slipped with his left knee appearing to buckle underneath him.
After receiving treatment he was able to walk off the pitch but still appeared to be in some discomfort. Following the game, Italy boss Luciano Spalletti gave a slightly worrying update .
“He said that his knee feels strange, but cannot answer more precisely than that, so we’ll have to see,” Spalletti said.
Calafiori himself also admitted that he was in the dark as to the extent of the injury shortly after the end of the game.
Italy are back in Nations League action on Sunday night as they take on Germany in the second leg of the olay-off quarter-final. But the nation has confirmed that Calafiori will now not be involved in that game.
Taking to social media on Friday afternoon, the official Italy account wrote: “Riccardo Calafiori, who underwent tests late this morning after sustaining an injury to his left knee during yesterday's match against Germany, has been deemed unavailable for Sunday's second leg and will return to his club.”
Journalist Fabrizio Romano adds that it has been suggested by Italy staff that Calafiori has suffered a collateral knee injury between grade one and two. He will now however return to Arsenal where the club’s medical staff will make their final assessment.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has had to deal with injury blows to his biggest players this season. Kai Havertz is out for the season with a hamstring problem while Bukayo Saka is hopefully back after the international break.
It has been suggested the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid on April 8 is when Saka could make his return. "He is going to be here (at the Arsenal training ground), hopefully more with (the) ball at his feet than he has had," Arteta said of Saka's international break plans.
"That will mean he is passing the ball and shooting and running and everything. He has done quite a lot already on the pitch working on his own. "Next, we need to arrange it with people around him in a more competitive training session and see how he goes with that.
"He’s getting closer, he’s stepping up and making a very good progress, I would say.
"So, let’s see when we start to throw him in with the team how he reacts and how fit he can get quickly."