Alessandro Bastoni is a doubt for Italy’s Euro 2024 round of 16 tie against Switzerland on Saturday.
Bastoni, 25, played the entirety of Italy’s 1-1 draw against Croatia on Monday but now could miss Saturday’s fixture due to illness.
Manager Luciano Spalletti also confirmed that Bastoni’s Inter Milan team-mate Federico Dimarco will miss the game in Berlin after the 26-year-old wing-back was substituted against Croatia.
Spalletti said: “We’ll look at Bastoni tomorrow morning, Dimarco is out, Bastoni did a portion of the training session today we thought he might be able to resolve it but he had a bit of a setback.
“He’s had a few degrees of fever, we need to see overnight how he responds.”
As a result, Gianluca Mancini is set to replace Riccardo Calafiori in the starting line-up against Switzerland.
Bologna defender Calafiori started all three of Italy’s group stage games, but the 22-year-old will take a place on the bench while Roma’s Mancini, 28, is set to make his first appearance of the tournament.
Spaletti added: “Mancini will replace Calafiori because he’s got the right amount of experience. Better off playing a right-footed player on the right and a left-footed player on the left in circumstances such as these.”
Italy, who started with a back four in their first two group games before deploying a back three against Croatia, are yet to record a clean sheet at Euro 2024. Meanwhile, Switzerland are yet to lose this year and have scored five goals in three games.
(James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)
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