VICTOR Osimhen will be available for today’s Serie A meeting between Napoli and Verona at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium after his injury lay-off.
Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti confirmed yesterday that the Nigeria international is fit again and will make his first appearance since sustaining a muscle injury while on international duty with the Super Eagles in late March.
Osimhen, the top scorer in Serie A with 23 goals, has sat out Napoli’s last three matches, two of which they lost to AC Milan in the Italian top flight and the UEFA Champions League.
In those games without Osimhen, Napoli scored only twice, in the 2-1 win over Lecce, while losing to AC Milan 4-0 at home in Serie A and 1-0 at San Siro in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Wednesday.
“His condition is good. I had a meeting with the doctors and tomorrow (today) he will be called up against Verona,” Spalletti told a press conference yesterday about the condition of his star striker.
“Obviously, the objective is to arrive at our best for Tuesday’s match, but tomorrow he’ll be with us on the bench.”
The Italian coach added that some rotations would be made for the match against Verona as he plots for victory against Milan in the Champions League.
“Whoever takes to the pitch tomorrow will have to do so knowing that they are playing one of the most important matches in this season,” he noted.
“Some changes will be made, I don’t know what that means reasoned or unreasoned. Not ten players, Kim is going to play as a starter.
“Then some have to recover because the physical and mental stress of two days ago is too close.
“Others, however, will stay. You have alert colleagues, and some names will come up as we go along.”
Napoli are expected to wrap up their first Serie A title in 33 years soon, as they are 13 points ahead of second-placed Lazio with a game in hand.
