Mario Balotelli recalled by Roberto Mancini ahead of Italy's World Cup qualifying play-offs

Two and a half months after the matches played against Switzerland and Northern Ireland, the Italian national football team will kick off 2022 by meeting from Wednesday to Friday at Coverciano for a brief training camp in view of the World Cup qualifying play-offs taking place at the end of March.

35 players have been called up by Roberto Mancini: Mario Balotelli returns to the Azzurri after more than three years away, while goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi, defenders Luiz Felipe and Giorgio Scalvini, midfielders Nicolo Fagioli, Davide Frattesi and Samuele Ricci and forward Joao Pedro have received their first call up to the national team.

Carnesecchi and Fagioli had already been called up in April 2019 for a camp reserved for youngsters. In the next few hours, players from the Azzurri group who are currently injured could be added to the list to take part in tactical work ahead of the March games.

The meeting is set for 12 noon on Wednesday 26 January at the Centro Tecnico Federale, with the coach holding a remote press conference at 13:15 before taking the first of three training sessions in the afternoon.

Squad list for Italy:

Goalkeepers: Marco Carnesecchi (Cremonese), Alessio Cragno (Cagliari), Alex Meret (Napoli), Salvatore Sirigu (Genoa);Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Cristiano Biraghi (Fiorentina), Davide Calabria (Milan), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Mattia De Sciglio (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Alessandro Florenzi (Milan), Luiz Felipe (Lazio), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Luca Pellegrini (Juventus), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Rafael Toloi (Atalanta);

Midfielders: Nicolo Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Nicolo Fagioli (Cremonese), Davide Frattesi (Sassuolo), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Matteo Pessina (Atalanta), Samuele Ricci (Empoli), Stefano Sensi (Inter), Sandro Tonali (Milan);

Forwards: Mario Balotelli (Adana Demirspor), Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Federico Bernardeschi (Juventus), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Joao Pedro (Cagliari), Giacomo Raspadori (Sassuolo), Gianluca Scamacca (Sassuolo), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio), Nicolo Zaniolo (Roma).

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor