Mancini prepares to leave 9 Italy players at home for France test including Romano

BURSA, TURKEY - SEPTEMBER 28: Roberto Mancini, Head Coach of Italy, looks on before the UEFA Nations League 2026/27 group phase match between Türkiye and Italy at Atatürk Spor Kompleksi Matli Stadyumu on September 28, 2026 in Bursa, Turkey. (Photo by Ahmad Mora/Getty Images)

Alessandro Romano and Samuele Inacio are set to be among the players that will be left at home for the upcoming Nations League test between France and Italy on Friday evening according to reports on Thursday afternoon. 

Italy will train at Coverciano on Thursday before jetting off to Paris to take on France in the third Nations League match of the September-October international break. 

Roberto Mancini’s second spell as head coach of the Italy national team began with a 2-0 defeat against Belgium at the Stadio Olimpico, but the Azzurri have since bounced back with an encouraging 4-1 win away against Turkey in Bursa on Monday evening. 

As has been the case for the last two fixtures, Mancini will have to leave several players out of his matchday squad, given that he has summoned a group of 34 players for the extra-long September-October camp and that he is only able to name 23 in the matchday squad. 

Nicolo Zaniolo and Giacomo Raspadori have already withdrawn from the squad through injury and have not been replaced, which means that another nine players from the original 34-man squad will have to be left out of the France match.

According to Thursday morning’s reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport, those players are likely to be goalkeeper Massimo Pessina, defenders Diego Coppola, Daniele Ghilardi, Honest Ahanor and Eddy Kouadio, midfielder Alessandro Romano and Rolando Mandragora plus attackers Nicolo Cambiaghi and Samuele Inacio.

The players who will not be involved in the France match are set to train in a separate group from the rest of the squad at Coverciano on Thursday afternoon, which was also the case ahead of the recent Turkey match.

Potential Italy squad to take on France

Assuming that the aforementioned nine players will not be involved, the 23-man Italy matchday squad for the France test will be as follows: 

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), Guglielmo Vicario (Juventus).

Defenders: Michael Kayode (Brentford), Matteo Ruggeri (Aston Villa), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Gianluca Mancini (Roma). 

Midfielders: Nicolo Fagioli (Fiorentina), Sandro Tonali (Tottenham), Issa Doumbia (Sporting CP), Davide Frattesi (Lazio), Nicolo Barella (Inter), Samuele Ricci (Como). 

Forwards: Pio Esposito (Inter), Moise Kean (Como), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Antonio Vergara (Napoli), Sebastiano Esposito (Sassuolo), Daniel Maldini (Cagliari), Mohamed Ali Zoma (1. FC Nurnberg).