Radja Nainggolan will not recover in time to play a part in Inter’s Serie A opener away to Sassuolo this weekend according to a report from Corriere dello Sport.

The summer signing picked up an injury to his thigh just 25 minutes in to Inter’s second pre-season match against Sion in mid-July and has missed the five friendlies since.

The report from the Rome based news outlet goes on to report that Joao Miranda and Stefan de Vrij are battling it out to partner Milan Skriniar at the heart of defence. de Vrij’s bid to win the battle can perhaps be helped by the fact he has had a full pre-season under his belt whereas Miranda has not. Keeping with the defence, Inter manager Luciano Spalletti must decide whether to count upon Sime Vrsaljko, who has had just one week of pre-season training, for the match against his former employers.

Lautaro Martinez could also be in line to start the match after scoring four goals over the course of pre-season.