Tuttosport: Pioli must make decision on Caldara – three-man defence possible

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli now has Mattia Caldara ready and available at his disposal, with the defender considered fully fit.

Caldara has not featured for Milan in over six months; his last appearance coming during the Coppa Italia semi-final second leg defeat against Lazio back in April when he suffered ligament damage.

SportMediaset (via MilanNews.it) recently reported that Caldara is finally ready to return to the field and could even get some minutes against Napoli – though likely not the full game – while Parma could represent a good game to thrust him back into the starting XI.

Speaking to the microphones of Calciomercato.com, Caldara’s agent Beppe Riso confirmed that his client is ready to go and is feeling better every day.

According to Tuttosport – as cited by MilanNews.it – Pioli must now make a decision after calling him up for the games against Lazio and Juventus but not using him.

From this point on, any exclusion of the 25-year-old is no longer a physical matter but exclusively a technical decision by the coach. Of course, he must get back up to game speed, but the only way to do that is by playing minutes in the league.

The report mentions that Caldara could become even more indispensable in the event of a switch to the three-man defense, one of the possibilities studied by Pioli at Milanello.

Tags AC Milan Mattia Caldara
Serie A Standings

Live football scores . Current table, fixtures & results.