AC Milan host Roma in a Serie A clash on Sunday night, and Paulo Fonseca has provided our latest team news ahead of the encounter.
With the Christmas break now concluded, the Rossoneri will look to extend our unbeaten run to four games across all competitions, having won two of the previous three.
Given our current position in the Serie A table in eighth spot though, we certainly need to continue winning and to build some momentum heading into the New Year, and it would undoubtedly be an important boost for Fonseca to have as close to a fully-fit squad at his disposal as possible.
The Milan coach spoke to the media in his pre-match press conference on Saturday, and he offered mixed news on the injury front as he will be boosted by the availability of some key individuals, while others are still recovering and will play no part this weekend.
“I expected that we could have [Christian] Pulisic,” he told reporters, as per MilanNews. “He is fine but in the last two days he has had an ankle problem, which is another one. He hasn’t trained with us. It’s a problem that arose during the recovery process, he is not ready for tomorrow, not even for the bench. Not for the previous problem but for this new one that has come up.
“[Ruben] Loftus-Cheek is much better, I think that next week he could be a solution. [Alvaro] Morata is fine, he is ready to play. [Ismael] Bennacer is fine, he is very motivated: he is not in the physical condition to play 90 minutes, but he is ready to play and he will play. I am sure he will play. [Yunus] Musah and [Rafael] Leao are more delayed, in recovery, let’s see if we can recover them for the Super Cup.”
Pulisic’s absence is naturally the biggest blow given how influential the 26-year-old has been so far this season, scoring eight goals and providing six assists in 20 appearances across all competitions.
Nevertheless, others will hopefully step up in his absence, while we’ll hopefully welcome back a string of players in the next week or so to continue to strengthen the group with Morata and Bennacer the first to give us a timely lift.
Meanwhile, Fonseca also provided an update on Theo Hernandez, and although he confirmed that he feels positive about the Frenchman’s availability and ability to come back into the fold, he still needs to work on his physical level to reach his optimal standard from a fitness perspective.
“We’ve had Theo train, he needs to recover physically,” he added. “It’s true, I think he’s also aware that he can do much better. But honestly in these last two days, that we’ve worked together and talked, I’m really positive about Theo: let’s see how he goes. I’m mainly positive about these last two days.”