The international break is over, and AC Milan will be back in Serie A action on Saturday evening when they take on Udinese at San Siro.
Milan didn’t go into the break in the best of ways as they lost to Bayer Leverkusen and Fiorentina just prior to it, with all the drama that accompanied the defeat in Florence putting a dark cloud over Paulo Fonseca and the team for the past 10 days or so.
However, Fonseca stated in his pre-match press conference that he was angered after the last game, but he had revisited the game with the squad and was now looking ahead at a ‘difficult’ Udinese game.
As mentioned in the introduction, it is important that Milan obtain three points in order to get their season back on track and stay in touch with the other teams near the top of the table.
There are two bits of good news on the injury front. Ruben Loftus-Cheek trained with the rest of the squad for the first time on Thursday after suffering a slight flexor problem in recent weeks and therefore he is in contention for the game.
Samuel Chukwueze meanwhile returned early from Nigeria due to what was feared to be a muscle issue, but he has also recovered. Thus, everyone is available except the long-term injured players Ismael Bennacer, Marco Sportiello and Alessandro Florenzi who are working on their recoveries.
Theo Hernandez meanwhile is suspended for the next two Serie A games after his red card against Fiorentina, and while he can play on Tuesday night against Club Brugge in the Champions League there remains some debate as to who will replace him for the Udinese and Bologna games.