Italy, Ahanor leaves the training camp and joins Baldini in the Under-21s: Nigeria can still hope for the "snatch"

For the third Italy senior match in a row, Roberto Mancini has again left out former Atalanta defender and current Crystal Palace player Honest Ahanor. In a statement today, the FIGC explained the reason why the Italo-Nigerian has also been left out of the squad for tonight's match in Paris against France. The player, born in 2008, has in fact been added to Silvio Baldini's Under-21 squad.

No injury, a technical choice to help the Azzurrini

There is therefore no physical reason whatsoever for the defender, who will now join up with the squad in Pescara as Italy Under-21 prepare for the hugely important do-or-die clash with Poland Under-21.

Direct qualification for the next European Championship is at stake, which would spare them the play-offs scheduled for the November international break. The Azzurrini simply have to win, and by at least a two-goal margin, to reclaim top spot in the table.

The statement

Honest Ahanor has left the senior national team training camp and will join the Italy Under-21 squad in the next few hours after they returned overnight to the Olympic Preparation Centre in Tirrenia following yesterday's win over Armenia and with Monday's decisive qualifier in Pescara against Poland for a place in the final stage of the European Under-21 Championship.

The Crystal Palace defender did not travel to Paris yesterday, where Italy face France tonight in their third Nations League group match, and instead stayed behind to train at the Federal Technical Centre in Coverciano with eight other Azzurri.

Nigeria can still hope

With Mancini's Italy and Baldini's Under-21s both playing on Monday 5 October, Ahanor will also be ruled out of the squad for the match against Turkey and, as a result, won't be able to make his debut in an official match for the senior national team.

Ahanor had already made his debut for Italy in the two friendlies played in June, with Baldini as interim head coach, but those matches do not count as games that trigger the impossibility of switching national teams.

That means, without a debut in official matches, Nigeria, Ahanor's second nationality, can resume courting him in an attempt to "snatch" him away from the Azzurri before the national teams' next official fixtures.