As unfortunate and frustrating injuries go, Davide Zappacosta’s at AS Roma early in the 2019-20 campaign is up there.
The Italian, pushed to one side at Chelsea, returned to Italy in hope of kickstarting his career again but an early calf muscle injury saw him miss the whole of September, which was then followed by a cruciate ligament rupture suffered in training earlier this month.
With the tight-back out until at least February, Roma are in a bit of a pickle when it comes to what to do with him.
His loan from Stamford Bridge originally only runs for six months, as Chelsea wanted the option to bring him back as an emergency if possible (since they can’t buy anyone in January for the time being), with the Italians given the option to extend it until the end of the season if that wasn’t necessary.
The problem is his extended absence has now forced to think about life without him, which has led to the idea of signing Elseid Hysaj from Napoli in the next transfer window.
Before that happens, however, two things would need to happen: Carlo Ancelotti’s side would have to lower their demands from €20m to €10m, and an agreement would need to be reached with Chelsea to send Zappacosta back to London.
The ‘exceptional conditions’ in the deal between the two sides were only for the Premier League side should they need to bring him back, but Corriere dello Sport reckon that Marina Granovskaia could prefer to have the Italian closer to home in order to follow their asset’s recovery in more detail.
One to keep an eye on in the coming weeks, all depending on how Roma fare in his absence.
