GdS: Milan battling ’emergency’ ahead of Feyenoord game – the eight absentees | OneFootball

AC Milan head coach Sergio Conceicao will have eight players absent for the game against Feyenoord on Wednesday, a report has revealed.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) report this morning, the UEFA regulations state that only three new signings can be named in the squad for the knockout stages even in spite of their age or homegrown qualification.

This has forced Milan to leave out Warren Bondo and Riccardo Sottil who arrived in January, but also Alex Jimenez. Despite the Spaniard’s young age, the Spaniard has not been in Italy for long enough yet to be considered eligible for List B. Luka Jovic also remains out.

To complete the picture there are injuries: the long-term patient Alessandro Florenzi is on his way back but is not yet ready, Emerson Royal is in Brazil and will be out for a further two-three month and Ruben Loftus-Cheek will not return until the Verona game on Saturday.

Conceiçao will thus have 15 senior outfield players available, plus the young Davide Bartesaghi and Francesco Camarda and the three goalkeepers Mike Maignan, Marco Sportiello and Lorenzo Torriani.

There are few options to choose from, especially in the midfield where – without Musah, Loftus-Cheek and Bondo – only Filippo Terracciano remains as an alternative, in addition to the untouchables Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders.

The Portuguese coach, if he wanted to respect the tactical plan of the last two outings, should focus on the former Verona man, but the temptation to launch the ‘fab four’ of Santiago Gimenez, Joao Felix, Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao from minute one is there.