Uncapped Pellegri recalled by Italy after injury woes

Uncapped attacker Pietro Pellegri has returned to the Italy squad after two years away, while Davide Calabria and Matteo Pessina have been called up for the first time.

Pellegri, who joined Monaco for a reported €25million fee as a 16-year-old in January 2018, was summoned by the Azzurri for the first and only time in September of that year but an injury forced him to withdraw from the squad.

The former Genoa player has only made 10 appearances for Monaco due to a series of injury issues. Four of his outings have come this season, but he missed the entirety of 2019-20 due to hamstring problems and has featured for a total of 171 minutes.

His first and only goal came in a 2-1 defeat to Bordeaux in August 2018 and has only registered one shot on target for the first team since then.

But Pellegri could finally earn his first Italy cap in a friendly against Estonia next Wednesday, with Roberto Mancini naming a bumper 41-man squad.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Pietro Pellegri (@iampellegri) on Nov 1, 2020 at 10:48am PST

Bologna midfielder Roberto Soriano is back in the fold four years after his previous call-up, while Domenico Criscito returns for the first time since October 2018.

Gianluigi Donnarumma, Alex Meret, Leonardo Bonucci, Alessandro Florenzi, Jorginho, Federico Chiesa, Lorenzo Insigne and Moise Kean have all been given permission to join up with the team the day before that match.

The rest of the squad will convene on Sunday, or as soon as they have completed any necessary period of isolation.

Mancini has tested positive for coronavirus and will reportedly not be in the dugout against Estonia, with assistant manager Alberigo Evani set to temporarily take charge of first-team affairs.

Italy squad:

Alessio Cragno (Cagliari), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Alex Meret (Napoli), Salvatore Sirigu (Torino); Francesco Acerbi (Lazio), Cristiano Biraghi (Fiorentina), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Davide Calabria (Milan), Domenico Criscito (Genoa), Danilo D’Ambrosio (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Emerson Palmieri (Chelsea), Alessandro Florenzi (Paris Saint-Germain), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Angelo Ogbonna (West Ham), Luca Pellegrini (Genoa), Alessio Romagnoli (Milan), Leonardo Spinazzola (Roma); Nicolo Barella (Inter), Gaetano Castrovilli (Fiorentina), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Roberto Gagliardini (Inter), Jorginho (Chelsea), Manuel Locatelli (Sassuolo), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Atalanta), Roberto Soriano (Bologna), Sandro Tonali (Milan); Andrea Belotti (Torino), Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Federico Bernardeschi (Juventus), Francesco Caputo (Sassuolo), Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Stephan El Shaarawy (Shanghai Shenhua), Vincenzo Grifo (Freiburg), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Moise Kean (Paris Saint-Germain), Kevin Lasagna (Udinese), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Pietro Pellegri (Monaco).