Federico Chiesa and Marco Verratti will have a chance to return to the Italy national team.
This comes after being included in coach Gennaro Gattuso’s preliminary list, they can return during the World Cup play-off campaign at the end of the month.
Italy will face Northern Ireland in the World Cup play-off semi-final in Bergamo on October 26. The winner of that match will then face either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina away on March 31, in a crucial match for a place in the final tournament.
If Italy fails to win either of these matches, it will be the third time in a row that they have not participated in the World Cup, as the Azzurri last qualified in the group stage in 2014.
Verratti will likely return to the national team for the first time in almost three years. The former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder, currently with Al-Duhail in Qatar, last played for Italy in the Nations League third-place play-off against the Netherlands in June 2023.
Chiesa, on the other hand, has not featured for Italy since the team’s poor showing at Euro 2024, but is also part of Gattuso’s preliminary list.
He met with the coach during a dinner in London a few weeks ago and the final decision on his call-up is expected to be made around 10 days before the training camp.
Among the other players who could be called up for the final qualifying matches of the month are Marco Palestra and Federico Gatti, while Nicolo Zaniolo is not expected to be part of the squad.