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Inter Milan suffered another injury setback during their Serie A match against AS Roma on Sunday, both Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Francesco Acerbi were forced off with muscular injuries in the first half.
Despite the early exits of two starting players, Inter managed to secure a 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from Lautaro Martínez.
Less than 12 minutes into the match, Çalhanoğlu requested to be substituted due to discomfort in his left thigh. Fifteen minutes later, Acerbi was also forced off with a similar injury.
“Calhanoglu wasn’t in great shape over the last two days, so with the other two available I would’ve rested him this evening. He is generous and tried to put in the effort, but he felt the adductor pain and stopped before it got worse,” Inter coach Simone Inzaghi told DAZN.
The win moved the Nerazzurri within two points of league leaders Napoli.
Inzaghi praised his captain, Martinez, who bagged his 133rd goal for Inter across all competitions, for matching the club’s all-time scoring record for a foreign player, which was previously held by Hungarian Istvan Nyers since the 1950s.
“He just has to keep doing what he has done with Inter and Argentina. I think he is one of the five best players in the world. He deserves all of this success,” Inzaghi said.
The match was the first of seven in 21 days in an intense period for Inter, which will also play more games than almost any other club this season. As well as the Italian league, Inter is involved in the Champions League, the Italian Cup and Italian Super Cup, and has qualified for the newly expanded Club World Cup.
“We have to live with the constant stress of so many games that the players are struggling to handle … we need to safeguard their health,” Inter Milan president Giuseppe Marotta said before Sunday’s match.
“It is not an easy situation … but we need to sit around a table and recognize that the fixture list has to be cut back.”
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.
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