Official: Calafiori drops out of Italy squad and returns to Arsenal

Riccardo Calafiori has been forced to withdraw from the Italy national team squad ahead of Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Norway, and will now return to Arsenal ahead of the North London Derby against rivals Tottenham next weekend. 

Calafiori was included in Gennaro Gattuso’s squad of 27 players for World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Norway during the November international break, but has been struggling with his fitness at Coverciano this week. 

The former Bologna centre-back trained individually during the first part of the week, and was not involved for Italy’s 2-0 win over Moldova on Thursday. 

He stayed on with the Azzurri squad, originally with the aim of returning to full fitness in time for the Norway qualifier on Sunday. 

However, it was confirmed during the pre-match press conferences on Saturday that Calafiori will return to Arsenal ahead of schedule. 

Moise Kean and Nicolo Cambiaghi also withdrew from the squad earlier this week.