In the month of January into the first part of February, the Africa Cup of Nations will take place and AC Milan are expected to lose two of their key performers.
There are two Milan players who will be involved in the event: Ismael Bennacer and Samuel Chukwueze. Their two national teams, Algeria and Nigeria, are also among the favourites to win which could deprive Milan of the pair for an extended period of time.
According to what is being reported by Peppe Di Stefano on Sky (via Radio Rossonera), Bennacer and Chukwueze will be available for the game against Sassuolo on the 30th, but immediately afterwards they are expected leave to be available to their national teams.
However, he added an update: Milan have opened dialogues with the respective federations, to convince the national teams to let them leave Italy on 3 January, so as to have them available for Milan-Cagliari, the round of 16 final of the Coppa Italia, which will be played on day before.
Whether Algeria and Nigeria will accept the proposal is not yet known, but it must be pointed out that it is only the training camp that begins early in January, given that the first game involving either player isn’t until January 14.
Algeria and Nigeria, if you want Bennacer and Chukwueze to be healthy and available for the tournament, you should not allow those 2 players to spend any extra time around the butchers Pioli, Osti and Co.
Would be better for us if they get injured to be honest, it’s not like they would be available.
Better to be unavailable for a few weeks with their national teams, than injured with Pioli and gone for few months.
They’ll get more rest and will be less likely to get injured playing for their country every two days than playing once a week with Pioli.