Federico Dimarco (foto: Getty Images)
Italy will be without their regular starter Federico Dimarco due to injury for the crucial match against Croatia in the group stage of the European Championship.
Italy and Croatia will face off on Monday in a bid to advance to the Round of 16 of the European Championship, but Italy will be missing a key player from their starting lineup.
The third-round matches in Group B of the European Championship in Germany are scheduled for Monday. Croatia, with one point, needs a victory against Italy to advance further.
The match between Croatia and Italy will take place at 21:00 in Leipzig on June 24, but today, bad news arrived for the Italians.
Federico Dimarco, a regular starter under Luciano Spalletti, will miss this game due to injury.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Dimarco sustained a blow to his right calf in the match against Spain and did not train yesterday. Today, a hematoma was discovered on his leg, ruling him out of the match against Croatia.
The same source mentioned that his replacement will be Andrea Cambiaso or, more likely, the experienced Matteo Darmian.
Dimarco has made 21 appearances for the Italian national team. In this championship, he played 83 minutes against Albania and 90 minutes against Spain. At the start of the match against Albania in the first round, he accidentally passed the ball to an opponent, leading to Bajrami scoring the fastest goal in the history of the European Championships.
If Italy advances to the Round of 16, Dimarco is likely to be ready, which is good news for the team defending their European title.