Stefano Sensi has somehow been named in Roberto Mancini’s Italy squad for next week’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The midfielder has played just 59 minutes of football for Inter during the last two months and has not started any game for the club since September 30.
Despite this, Mancini has included the 25-year-old in his 38-man squad for the Azzurri’s upcoming matches against Northern Ireland, Bulgaria and Lithuania, along with Nicolo Barella and Alessandro Bastoni.
However, as Italy’s tweet announcing the squad noted, Inter’s three players can only respond to their call-ups if they are allowed to by Milan’s local health authority, following the Nerazzurri’s COVID-19 outbreak.
As per Gazzetta dello Sport‘s print edition on Friday, Sensi, Barella and Bastoni are required to isolate at home for 14 days after four Inter players tested positive for the virus.
This means they cannot travel to anywhere other than Inter’s training ground at Appiano Gentile until March 31, which is also the date of Italy’s final match of the international break in Lithuania.
Serie A players who were subject to COVID-19 quarantines were previously allowed to join up with their national teams as normal, provided that they travelled privately.
But the situation has now changed, the report explained, given the heightened risk of contagion and the number of different variants of the virus circulating.
If players decide to break the rules, Gazzetta warned, they would be doing so at their own risk and could be forced into mandatory quarantine upon their return.
Barring a miraculous change of events, therefore, Sensi, Barella and Bastoni will not be joining up with Italy’s squad next week.
