AC Milan face Juventus on Sunday night, and coach Gennaro Gattuso has an injury crisis on his hands after more concerns emerged against Real Betis.
Long-term absentees Mattia Caldara and Lucas Biglia are already ruled out, leaving Milan short in defence and midfield respectively.
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In turn, the last thing that Gattuso needed was to see more key players pick up problems ahead of the international break, but that is exactly what he is faced with after their draw against Betis in the Europa League on Thursday night.
As per Calciomercato, Mateo Musacchio, Hakan Calhanoglu, Franck Kessie and Patrick Cutrone all came away with knocks, with some perhaps more serious than others.
While Kessie and Cutrone were able to continue, both Musacchio and Calhanoglu were forced off and so perhaps those two could be major doubts for the clash with Juventus at the San Siro on Sunday.
It’s far from ideal for the Rossoneri as they continue to chase a top-four finish in Serie A this season, as they’ll be desperate to get back into the Champions League next year.
Given the international break follows this weekend’s fixture, perhaps that will give Gattuso and his men a chance to recover and regroup, but they face a daunting task against Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus first with the reigning Italian champions winning 10 of their 11 league games so far this year.
With that in mind, losing so many key players to injuries will hurt Milan, but as they showed in the second half against Betis to secure a point, they’ll have to show real resilience and heart again to deny Juventus another win.
