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Liverpool forward Federico Chiesa has turned down the chance to join up with the Italian national team for the November international break, Gennaro Gattuso says.
The Italy boss told reporters that he spoke with Chiesa and the Liverpool man told him that he was not ready to link up with the squad ahead of games with Moldova and Norway in World Cup qualifying. Chiesa has not played for the Italian national team since Euro 2024.
"I must respect what the player tells me," Gattuso said in a press conference. "I often talk to him. We have to respect the decisions and problems that each of us has.
"We know well what we tell each other, and I must respect what the player tells me. I can't say anything else."
Last month, Gattuso said Chiesa had told him he doesn't feel "100 per cent" and only wants to join up with Italy when he feels fully ready to play a part.
In Chiesa's absence, Italy’s attacking options are Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter Milan), Moise Kean (Fiorentina), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Atletico Madrid), Mateo Retegui (Al Qadsiah), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), and Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio).
Rather than playing for Italy, Chiesa will train with Liverpool. This season, he has scored twice but has yet to become a regular for Arne Slot.
He played the full game as a much-changed Liverpool crashed out of the League Cup at home to Crystal Palace and was only used for a handful of minutes in the fixtures that followed.
Against Aston Villa, Chiesa was an unused substitute. He then came off the bench for a handful of minutes against Real Madrid and Manchester City.
In the summer, Chiesa had interest from clubs in Serie A but chose to stay at Liverpool. In a World Cup year, he is surely hoping to return to the Italy squad to play at next summer's tournament.
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Even though he didn't feature much, Chiesa told Sky Sports last week that winning the Premier League title with Liverpool was in the top three moments of his career.
"Winning it for Liverpool, playing with amazing players, it was just amazing," he said ahead of the Manchester City game. "Even though I didn’t participate that much, but I was glad I won that trophy."
Liverpool.com says: Chiesa could probably have done with the minutes for Italy. He isn't going to get loads of them for Liverpool, especially now the Reds are out of the League Cup, and that is the only way to improve sharpness.
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