De Zerbi's update on absent players

In our third pre-season game, we made it three wins from three with a 4-2 victory on penalties after a 1-1 draw in normal time.

Mathys Tel put us ahead just before the half-hour mark with a stunning free kick as he continued his bright start to pre-season before Takehiro Sekine levelled 10 minutes into the second half.

Still level after the 90 minutes, the game was settled with a penalty shootout and, thanks to a superb save from Martin Dubravka, we prevailed 4-2.

For the game, we were missing a number of senior players, including Kevin Danso, Micky van de Ven, Dominic Solanke, James Maddison, Jan Paul van Hecke, Destiny Udogie and Mateus Fernandes.

In his post-match press conference, Roberto De Zerbi was asked by a member of the media for an update on the players.

"Danso, van de Ven, Solanke, Jan Paul van Hecke, I thought today they were not ready yet to play without risk," Roberto responded. "Maybe some of them can play the next game, on Saturday against Chelsea. Maybe not in the beginning, maybe at the beginning (Andy) Robertson and Sandro Tonali. It is about managing the players, especially after the World Cup or after big injuries like Udogie or Solanke had. They suffered long injuries last season and after a long trip, after the jet lag, ahead the beginning of the season, I wouldn’t like to take any risks."

He was then asked specifically about Mateus Fernandes.

"Fernandes is just fatigue, in the calf, and also for him, we took the decision not to take any risks," He said. "And next week, when we return to London, he will be able to work."