‘Very simple…’ – Gennaro Gattuso gives candid explanation for latest Chiesa omission for Italy | OneFootball

Another international window will pass this month without Federico Chiesa adding to his 51 caps for Italy.

Despite being utilised more frequently by Arne Slot in the early weeks of this season compared to last and having the best goals-per-minute ratio of anyone at Liverpool so far in 2025/26, the forward has again been omitted by Gennaro Gattuso for Azzurri duty in October.

The former AC Milan midfield general did call up one Reds player in Giovanni Leoni last month, but sadly the defender’s ACL injury in late September will sideline him for the foreseeable future.

Gattuso explains latest Chiesa omission for Italy

Speaking to the media ahead of Italy’s next World Cup qualifier away to Estonia on Saturday, Gattuso explained that he opted to leave out Chiesa after the 27-year-old admitted that he doesn’t yet feel ‘100%’ in conversations between the pair.

The Azzurri boss said (via Football Italia): “The Chiesa issue is very simple. I talk to my players a lot, and I want to make that clear, a lot.

“I speak every week with Fede and he knows what I think of him, but I also have to respect what the player tells me. He does not feel at 100% and wants to be at 100%; that is the truth.”

(Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

Chiesa surely isn’t far off an Italy recall

Gattuso’s explanation was similar to the one he gave for omitting the Liverpool forward from the Italy squad last month, and it means that the Reds’ number 14 still hasn’t played for his country since his transfer from Juventus in August 2024.

Chiesa was promoted to our Champions League squad after Leoni’s injury woe but didn’t travel to Istanbul for the defeat to Galatasaray last week, having remained on Merseyside due to a slight ‘niggle’, as Slot explained.

He was on the bench for the game at Chelsea on Saturday but didn’t play any part in the match, and LFC fans won’t be complaining about him having the international break off to work on his fitness at the AXA Training Centre, rather than travelling around Europe and risking an injury on Azzurri duty.

If the 27-year-old grabs another crucial goal or two in the next month and doesn’t have any further injury concerns, he may well get the call from Gattuso for Italy’s matches in November, one of which is a crunch World Cup qualifier against group leaders Norway.

Chiesa would absolutely deserve to be restored to the national team fold, but we’re quite alright with him staying put in Liverpool ahead of another hectic sequence of seven games in three weeks for Slot’s side.