Injury forces Balotelli out of semi-final against Spain

Jun 25, 2013 |

Agencies

Italy striker Mario Balotelli has been ruled out of his side’s Confederations Cup semi-final against Spain on Thursday with a thigh injury, the Italian Football Federation said on Sunday.

“The examinations carried out this afternoon in Fortaleza on Mario Balotelli showed a grade-one tear in the quadriceps muscle of the left leg,” it said in a statement.
“The player will not be available for the semi-final against Spain on Thursday, June 27 and in the coming days his condition will be evaluated for the match on the 30th (either the final or third-place play-off).”
Balotelli, who left Manchester City for AC Milan earlier this year, has scored twice for Italy in the tournament, and would have been expected to once again lead his side's attack in Fortaleza against the world and European champions.
Italy coach Cesare Prandelli hopes to have playmaker Andrea Pirlo available after he missed Saturday's 4-2 defeat to hosts Brazil in the final Group A game with a sore calf.
Brazil take on Uruguay in the other semi-final on Wednesday.

Fabregas, Soldado doubtful
Midfielder Cesc Fabregas and striker Roberto Soldado are both doubts for the semi-final against Italy due to muscle injuries, the Spanish Football Federation revealed on Monday.
Fabregas was substituted in the 54th minute of Spain’s 3-0 win over Nigeria in Fortaleza on Sunday, while Soldado went off six minutes later.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/238648" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-cc8f61b493632ef5a7111e1f38ade15a" value="form-cc8f61b493632ef5a7111e1f38ade15a" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86394944" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>