Nesta KO, Camoranesi OK Monday 3 July, 2006
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Alessandro Nesta has been officially ruled out of the World Cup semi-final with Germany, but Mauro Camoranesi will be available for Italy.
Both men have been struggling with injuries and only the Juventus midfielder has come through tonight’s training session unscathed.
Although there was widespread pessimism that Nesta would be able to recover from a groin strain in time, whispers in Germany on Monday suggested that he may have made an unexpected return.
Nesta did start training at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, but had to pull out after just 10 minutes of a practice game.
“He won’t be at our disposal,” said boss Marcello Lippi this evening. “We tried to recover him, but without pushing him too far.
“We already stated on Sunday that he wasn’t likely to feature, let’s hope that he can be available for one last important game.”
Nesta and the suspended Daniele De Rossi are the only squad members not available to Lippi after Camoranesi passed a fitness test.
The winger has missed a number of training sessions since picking up a knee injury in the 3-0 win over the Ukraine on Friday.
Although Lippi is again giving little away with regard to his starting XI, the Argentine-born star is likely to start on the right.
Marco Materazzi, following his one match suspension, is set to pip Andrea Barzagli to Nesta’s shirt in the centre of defence.
Tonight’s practice game sides were…
Team one: Buffon; Oddo, Nesta, Barzagli, Zaccardo; Gattuso, Pirlo, Perrotta; Totti, Toni, Iaquinta.
Team two: Peruzzi: Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Materazzi, Grosso; Camoranesi, Barone, De Rossi; Gilardino, Inzaghi, Del Piero.
Penalties were also practiced at the end of the session with Massimo Oddo, Materazzi and Camoranesi amongst those most heavily involved.
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Btw, Pessotto was good . And also Nesta .
