AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli spoke to the media on Friday ahead of the weekend’s encounter with Sampdoria and offered fitness updates on his squad.
The Rossoneri sit in second place with 10 games remaining in the Serie A campaign, as we continue to battle for a Champions League qualification spot while perhaps continuing to mount a run for the Scudetto.
READ MORE: How Milan could line up vs Sampdoria: Pioli close to full-strength XI in major boost
However, the focus for now will purely be on Sampdoria on Saturday and picking up three important points off the back of the International break and Pioli shared the latest updates on the fitness of his players.
“If I could, I would have given everyone a holiday, we needed this break,” he told the media, as reported by MilanNews. “The five forward players who remained with us are fine, those who returned from their national teams are back in good condition, except Brahim Diaz who has problems and we will evaluate him tonight.
“Tomorrow we will not have everyone available, we are still far from what I would like, tomorrow we will also be without Romagnoli, Calabria, Mandzukic, Leao and Daniel Maldini.
“Ibra is fine. He is happy to be back in the national team and available with us. He did two high level training sessions, he arrived in very good condition. Everything is fine.”
Pioli also touched on the situation regarding contract renewals for a number of key players, with uncertainty still shrouding the futures of the likes of Gianluigi Donnarumma, Hakan Calhanoglu and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
However, he was calm about where things currently stand, and insists that the players in question aren’t distracted by the talk over potential new deals either and all concerned are fully focused on the task in hand.
“I see serenity in the eyes of Zlatan, Calha, Gigio, the players who are negotiating renewals,” he added. “Their future is now with us, it would change everything for us to go or not to go to the Champions League, I see a lot of concentration and attention.
“I have daily contacts with the management, we are focused on tomorrow’s game and on the next ones, we will think about the future later.
“We still have a lot of points to gain. 75 could be the right threshold [to qualify for the Champions League], but it is difficult to calculate.
“The team has to think like this [challenging for the Scudetto], God forbid you think negatively, then we know very well that we have to turn hopes into convincing performances, winning is difficult, but the team must go out on the pitch with confidence and awareness.”
Since his arrival in January, Fikayo Tomori has made a positive impact on the side with a decision needed in the summer as to whether or not to turn his loan move into a permanent deal.
Pioli also spoke on the Chelsea loanee, and although he offered a glowing report of his efforts so far, he wouldn’t be drawn on his longer-term future as the priority for the team right now is to ensure that we achieve our objectives this season.
“We are very satisfied with how he has integrated, he is a handsome smiling boy, he offers us important characteristics. We must continue to do well, without thinking about the future. We have to think about tomorrow’s game, it will be complicated, the International breaks take away some preparation time. Let’s focus on this game and then we’ll think about the future.”