Inter Players Allowed to Join National Teams

Inter’s second COVID-19 outbreak of the season caused quite a stir in Serie A and led to the postponement of the Nerazzurri’s fixture with Sassuolo, the fourth league game put off by the virus this season. It won’t, however, affect the arrival of Inter players to their respective national teams ahead of World Cup Qualifying. Since Stefan de Vrij and Matias Vecino tested positive last Tuesday, there have been no new positives and the local health authority seems ready to allow Inter players to travel and train again according to Sky Italia. The four positive players (Handanovic, de Vrij, Vecino, D’Ambrosio) are still infected and remain quarantined.

The ten Inter players who have received international call-ups will be able to travel in private planes to their home countries and meet up with the rest of the national team at the request of each countries federation. Romelu Lukaku (Belgium), Milan Skriniar (Slovakia), Christian Eriksen (Denmark), Ionut Radu (Romania), Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Perisic (Croatia), and Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) are all expected to depart Milan shortly. The Italian contingent (Nicolo Barella, Alessandro Bastoni, and Stefano Sensi) are waiting on approval to join the Azzurri camp.

Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images

Alexis Sanchez and Lautaro Martinez saw their country’s WC qualifiers for this window canceled by CONMEBOL so get two weeks off along with the non-internationals.

Hopefully, all players return in two weeks' time healthy and virus-free, though a gathering of players from all across Europe certainly doesn’t seem the safest of activities.