Luciano Spalletti prepared for the match against Sassuolo without being able to count on Radja Nainggolan, but the coach is waiting anxiously to insert the Belgian turbine into the engine: “He is recovering and we have to be careful not to make mistakes, we will do things intelligently and calmly,” he said yesterday at his pre-match press conference. “But Ninja should be back for Torino,” reports Tuttosport.
Nainggolan arrived in a player exchange deal from Roma earlier this summer with Davide Santon and Nicolo Zaniolo heading in the other direction. Nainggolan picked up a muscle strain within 20 minutes of the first pre-season match in July which has kept him out of all of the pre-season games since.
In his absence, Spalletti has been able to experiment, but it is obvious that the Inter manager would much rather have Ninja at his disposal at all times and hopes, when he is fit, he can re-create the form he showed when they were both at Roma together.