Antonelli rues Montolivo absence

AC Milan defender Luca Antonelli has admitted that his side will miss midfielder Riccardo Montolivo after he suffered a serious knee injury while on international duty.

Montolivo was forced to undergo surgery after being injured in Italy’s 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw with Spain, meaning that he face a race to feature again this season for the Rossoneri.

We’ll miss him a lot. He’s crucial for us, on the pitch and not only there.

Luca Antonelli

And Antonelli accepts that he will be a big loss for the San Siro outfit, who are currently sixth in Serie A after seven games played.

He told reporters: “We’ll miss him a lot. He’s crucial for us, on the pitch and not only there.

“He’s feeling down, because he wanted to help the team out this season. With this injury, his season has practically ended early, because he’ll be out for six months.”

Meanwhile, Napoli are hopeful that striker Arkadiusz Milik might be back in action in around three months.

The 22-year-old had scored seven goals in nine appearances since moving to Naples from Ajax last summer, but suffered serious ligament damage to his left knee while on international duty with Poland and required surgery to repair the injury.

However, Napoli head physio Alfonso De Nicola hopes to see Milik back in training some time early in the New Year, with a recovery period set between three and four months.

De Nicola told Il Mattino: “Regarding recovery time, I want to be optimistic.

“It’ll be shorter than what we’ve said out of precaution – say three, three-and-a-half months, but hopefully it will be much less.”

Napoli can be backed at 10/11 to win Serie A this season if Juventus are excluded from the standings, with AC Milan available at 12/1 and Roma priced at 21/10.