Injury And Referee Appointment Are Two Reasons Why Inter Should Wary As The Serie A Title Race Heats Up

Written By Onyeka Daniel

The Italian Serie A title race could take a different turn this weekend as we get closer to the end of the season while two teams, Napoli and Inter Milan, the two immediate champions, continue to fight for the league this season with just one point separating them on the table.

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For the Nerazzurri, they will play host to Lazio this weekend at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium and ahead of this encounter, the fitness of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Benjamin Pavard, and Davide Frattesi is in the balance, according to a report from Sky Sport Italia.

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They report that today will be decisive for determining whether all three can be available for Sunday’s Serie A clash. After the thrilling semi-final win over Barcelona in the Champions League, Frattesi and Mkhitaryan missed Inter’s last match, a 2-0 win away to Torino.

For Pavard, the defender has been out of action even before that and their captain, Lautaro Martinez was also absent from that match against the Granata. Frattesi is dealing with an abdominal problem, and Mkhitaryan is suffering from a slight thigh strain.

Both were picked up in the UCL win, while Pavard has been recovering from an ankle sprain for the past few weeks. He suffered the injury in a Serie A loss to Roma. The report has it that all three of Pavard, Mkhitaryan, and Frattesi made partial returns to training yesterday.

Therefore, it should not be too long before all three are back on the pitch. However, the question is whether the trio will be fully match-fit in time for this weekend’s match against Lazio. The match could prove vitally important to Inter’s hopes of retaining the Serie A title.

However, at the same time, Inter coach Simone Inzaghi won’t want to take any fitness risks against the Biancocelesti as they also have the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain to think about as well. That is on May 31st at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

Hence, Inzaghi will hardly rush any of them back if they’re not ready, despite the possibility of winning two trophies. Accordingly, it will be key to see how rapidly the trio progress on their return to training. Consequently, today’s session will shed a lot of light on the availability of all three.

Furthermore, the coach will aim to ease Lautaro back to his best ahead of the UCL final according to a report from Tuttosport. The Argentine will aim to use Inter’s final Serie A match of the season against Como as a springboard to the final, definitely skipping this weekend game.

He suffered an elongation of his thigh flexor muscles in the first leg of Inter’s UCL semifinal tie against Barça and while that was not a particularly serious injury as he had not suffered a strain or tear. However, it was a significant enough problem to force him off at halftime of that match.

Nevertheless, the 27-year-old rushed back for the second leg. He was far from 100% for that match, but naturally, the importance of the match meant that the striker gave everything to be on the pitch. He then spent the next few days on the sidelines recuperating.

The Inter captain had the desired effect in the second leg as he scored Inter’s opener, and then won the penalty for their second goal. However, he eventually had to come off during the second half at the San Siro as he had aggravated his muscle issue by playing in the high intensity match.

Accordingly, it was little surprise that Martinez was unavailable against Torino last week and should also skip this weekend’s game. However, he will make his return to the squad for Inter’s final match of the campaign, away to Como according to the report.

He won’t likely start that match, but will aim to get some minutes in his legs as Inzaghi will be using the Como match as a platform for Martinez to build match fitness ahead of the all-important Champions League final against PSG at the end of the month.

In a related development, there is controversy swirling on social media after Marco Guida was assigned to the VAR team for Inter’s game against Lazio, despite warning he would not be involved in Napoli fixtures. Almost all of the Serie A Week 37 matches will be played simultaneously on Sunday evening.

This is to ensure fairness for the Scudetto race. The referees were assigned for these games and one name raised eyebrows, because Marco Guida is appointed the assistant VAR for Inter vs. Lazio. This caused controversy because Guida is from the Naples area, specifically Pompeii.

In an interesting fact, he told Radio CRC only a month ago that he had asked not to be assigned to Napoli games as he believed that he and fellow Neapolitan referee Fabio Maresca would prefer not to be assigned to their matches, not through fear they would be biased.

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Instead, they were concerned at the safety of their families living in Naples. Guida will be only an assistant VAR, but still in the booth checking footage and deciding whether or not to recommend an On-Field Review in the Inter-Lazio match, with an inevitable knock-on effect for the Scudetto race against Napoli.

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