Federico Chiesa‘s international career has taken another blow, with the attacker forced to leave the Italy squad immediately after his first call up for nearly two years.
For the first time since Euro 2024, Chiesa accepted a call-up to the Italy squad, with a vital World Cup play-off semi-final against Northern Ireland to come on Thursday.
However, ahead of the squad’s first training session of the week, he has already left their Florence training base.
Chiesa was assessed upon his arrival but “deemed unavailable” by staff.
The Italian national team statement said: “In agreement with his club, he has left the squad.”
As a result, manager Gennaro Gattuso has called up Bologna attacker Nicolo Cambiaghi in his place.
At 28 years old, Chiesa has 51 caps for his national team but hasn’t played for them since their 2-0 loss to Switzerland in the Euro 2024 round of 16.
The coach has readily reached out to Chiesa and expressed a desire to name him in his squad, and he previously explained that the duo talk often but it was the Liverpool man who had rejected call-ups.
“I often talk to him. We have to respect the decisions and problems that each of us has,” Gattuso told reporters last November.
“We know well what we tell each other, and I must respect what the player tells me. I can’t say anything else.”
While Chiesa suffered with injury problems consistently across the 2024/25 campaign, starting just four matches in all competitions, his availability has improved this season.
Despite only missing one match through injury this time around, he has still started just five times for Arne Slot.
His appearances from the bench have become far more frequent, however, with the attacker coming on as a substitute on 27 occasions.
Given Chiesa played 13 minutes against Brighton and didn’t suffer any noticeable injury, it will be interesting to hear from Gattuso on why he has been deemed unavailable for Italy.
As mentioned, he will now miss their play-off semi-final against a Northern Ireland side that will feature Liverpool youngster Kieran Morrison as a substitute for the first time.
The winners of that game in Bergamo will progress to the final against Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina, who play each other in Cardiff on Thursday.
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