FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Serie A - Inter Milan v Frosinone - San Siro, Milan, Italy - November 12, 2023 Inter Milan coach Simone Inzaghi REUTERS/Daniele Mascolo
(Reuters) - Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi hopes to have Alexis Sanchez available for selection this week as the Serie A leaders go into a hectic period of fixtures with several key players struggling with injuries.
Former Arsenal and Manchester United forward Sanchez returned from Chile's World Cup qualifiers with an ankle sprain and missed Sunday's 1-1 draw at second-placed Juventus.
Inter will play twice a week until Christmas, starting with Wednesday's Champions League game at Benfica.
"We’ll make our assessments in the hope that Sanchez will be back fit for our next game," Inzaghi told reporters. "Now, we have Benfica and Napoli coming up, and we’re currently missing players."
Alessandro Bastoni and Benjamin Pavard also missed the Juventus trip.
"Taking to the pitch every 48 hours isn’t easy, but I’m lucky to have lads who always show great willingness and make themselves available to me and my staff," Inzaghi added.
"We’ve always rotated things when we’ve had to play three matches per week ... with such a difficult calendar, we need to work even harder."
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
