Conte: ‘De Bruyne needed 4 stitches after nasty clash of heads’

Antonio Conte reveals a nasty incident in training ruled Kevin De Bruyne out of tonight’s game with Napoli and sent him to hospital. ‘There’s no head trauma, but he needed four stitches.’

It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 19.45 UK time (20.45 CEST).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.

The Belgium international was expected to start this evening, but in the afternoon reports emerged that he would be left out in favour of Giovane.

The nature of the injury was not clear and he is not even on the bench tonight.

“De Bruyne had basically a collision in training, a clash of heads, his cheekbone split open, he had four stitches and tests. There is no head trauma, but he’s still not in great shape,” Conte told DAZN Italia.

There is the return of captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo, who had not featured since suffering a knee ligament injury on January 31 against Fiorentina.

“I think Giovanni represents Napoli of this era, he’s been here a long time, is the captain, the only player who have won everything the club won in these years.

“He’s an important player, a charismatic figure, now after two weeks of training with the team, it’s only right that he returns to the starting XI.”

Inter have clinched the Scudetto with three rounds to spare, becoming the new Champions of Italy after Napoli took the title last season.

Conte had said that second place was just the first for losers, but does he still believe that?

“We try to do our best. I think this has been a very, very difficult year where we found ourselves in situations that could’ve knocked us down. Those who were left over did well to cover absences that lasted five or six months,” replied Conte.

“We kept ourselves afloat, Inter deserve credit for their title and the winning mentality is also shown by giving credit to the team that did better. Inter won, congratulations to them, but that doesn’t mean that we lost.”