Just as he was enjoying his best spell of the season so far, Alexis Saelemaekers has been forced to stop. As Milan confirmed a few days ago, the Belgian suffered a sprain to his right ankle during training. Fortunately, medical examinations revealed no structural damage, meaning his recovery will be assessed on a day-by-day basis. However, this means Saelemaekers is very unlikely to be available for the match against Sassuolo. Who will replace him? Here are all the options available.
Milan, who will replace Saelemaekers?
Diego Moreira is currently the leading candidate. The player can operate as a wing-back on either flank, but can also play in an attacking midfield role. Against Lecce, the Belgian actually came on in place of Saelemaekers with around 20 minutes remaining. Amorim had switched the formation to a 4-4-2 at that point.
If selected, Moreira would play on the left of the attacking midfield duo in the 3-4-2-1, alongside Pulisic and behind Ramos.
Alphadjo Cisse is further down the pecking order, having remained on the bench for the entire 90 minutes against Lecce. For this reason, the former Catanzaro player is considered behind Moreira as a potential replacement for Saelemaekers.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek, meanwhile, has seen his playing time reduced, making it difficult to imagine Amorim choosing him to replace the Belgian. The Englishman has yet to produce particularly convincing performances this season. In fact, the former Chelsea midfielder was even booed by the San Siro crowd against Lecce.
Furthermore, Loftus-Cheek has consistently been deployed on the right rather than the left side of midfield. This is another reason why he could find himself on the bench against the Neroverdi.
Amorim, however, has an ace up his sleeve: pushing Frenchman Adrien Rabiot further forward, as he did against Juventus on matchday three. Rabiot is coming off an excellent performance against Lecce, which he also capped with a goal. He could retain the same position he occupied against the Lecce side, though, which would leave the attacking positions available for his team-mates.
