Inter defender Milan Skriniar will not be back from his back injury for next week’s Champions League quarterfinal second leg match against Benfica at the San Siro.
This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, who report that there is still no clear return date for the 28-year-old, but that there is virtually no chance of him being back on the pitch in time for Wednesday’s match.
Skriniar has now been out for four matches since the international break in addition to several matches before the break and the two EURO 2024 qualifiers played by Slovakia during the break itself.
The reason for this has been a persistent back injury, which has been causing the former Sampdoria defender lingering pain.
The issue, according to the Gazzetta, has been pain in the defender’s sciatica nerve.
The nature of this problem is that it is hard to determine a precise timeline for when Skriniar should be able to fully heal from the injury and return to the pitch.
What does seem fairly certain, however, is that a return cannot be forecasted for the immediate horizon.
This means that there would be no chance that Skriniar will be back in action for Saturday evening’s Serie A match against Monza at the San Siro.
Moreover, it also entails near certainty that the Slovakian will not be fit in time for the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal tie against Benfica, having already missed the first leg in Lisbon earlier this week.
As far as when Skriniar will be able to return, Inter will have to hope that it is not too much longer given the packed schedule they have in the run-in.
However, the back injury that the 28-year-old is dealing with unfortunately means that a timeline is still hard to nail down.
