A cruel blow to Roma last night in their 3-1 win against Sassuolo with the news this morning that Alessandro Florenzi has damaged his cruciate knee ligaments and will be sidelined for some time. His versatility as a full-back or midfielder will be greatly missed and with Mo Salah also missing in January as he goes of African Nations Cup duty with Egypt, the giallorossi are looking for replacements.
 

It’s unlikely that the capital club will look to players out of contract to bring in straight away; names such as Caceres (a summer target) or even a return for Maicon, are both possibilities if not probabilities. For now, Rudiger’s return will certainly help with Bruno Peres also about to return to full fitness. In the next two months, summer signing Mario Rui may finally be ready to pull on a Roma jersey for the first time also. Other possible options remain Widmer of Udinese, who the giallorossi have followed for some time and Zabaleta; subject of much speculation last summer. Add to this list Grosskreutz of Stuttgart and the more difficult scenario of bringing Jedvaj back from Bayer Leverkusen.  

With Salah away in January, the new ds Massara will look to strengthen with only Iturbe a natural attacking replacement for Florenzi. El Shaarawy could be used as an alternative to Salah but this looks too risky so Roma will prepare a short-list for the new year; a list that will contain players from outside of Serie A, given the shortage of available names in the peninsula.



By Fabrizio Romano. Adapted & translated by Steve Mitchell