Milanello will be almost deserted over the coming days during the international break. Ruben Amorim has seen thirteen players depart after being called up by their respective national team coaches.
With a lengthy injury list that includes long-term absentees Pietro Terracciano, Matteo Gabbia, Fikayo Tomori, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Alexis Saelemaekers and Samuel Chukwueze, it is easy to understand why the Portuguese coach has scheduled the resumption of training for 16 November.
AC Milan's central defender Strahinja Pavlovic is also sidelined...
The Serbian centre-back, who missed both last Thursday's Europa League match against Ferencvaros and the victorious away trip to Genoa two afternoons ago, is dealing with a problem involving colic-like pain in his side, which is preventing him from returning to group training. The kidney pain first made itself felt after the derby before resurfacing on Friday, prompting Milan's medical staff to arrange further examinations to investigate the situation more thoroughly.
Pavlovic will most likely not report for duty with the Serbian national team. The words of his national team coach, Veljko Paunovic, during a press conference also suggest that his withdrawal is imminent:
"Strahinja Pavlovic is under observation due to a kidney problem. We have spoken in the past few hours and he needs to undergo some tests. He might still join us, but it is difficult. For this reason, we called up Krpic from Gyor at a later stage, giving him the opportunity to show what he can do."
The outfield players who have remained are Filippo Terracciano, Mario Gila, Koni De Winter, Omari Hutchinson and Yunus Musah. Objectively, that is far too few to even consider organising a proper training session. There would not even be enough players for a five-a-side football match. That is why Amorim has postponed training until next Monday.
Meanwhile, the injured players will be at Milanello working through their respective recovery programmes. It should be noted that all these injuries are serious in nature, and none of the players currently in the treatment room will be available for the match against Frosinone. Pavlovic is a separate case: once he has recovered from his kidney problem, he will certainly return to the pitch, as pointed out via the Tuttosport newspaper in this morning's print edition.
In general, it is worth highlighting that Ruben Amorim and his staff's working methods are, in certain respects, quite new within Italian football culture. The training sessions are intense but not so demanding that they push the players' physical systems to breaking point.
Perhaps he still needs to work a little on the team's mental resilience throughout all ninety minutes. Even against Genoa, during the final quarter of the match, Milan struggled to cope with the opposition's onslaught, just as they had against Juventus (Gatti's goal in stoppage time) and Atalanta (two goals conceded within a few minutes to turn a 3-0 lead into a 3-2 scoreline).
In this respect, Amorim is also expecting certain types of reinforcements in the January transfer window, because the overall quality of the squad needs to be raised, both technically and in terms of personality, to help the team move beyond its late-game blackouts.
