Gonçalo Ramos sidelined: derby in doubt, scans on Thursday

The problem emerged during the final training session on 21 October at Milanello, AC Milan’s training ground: Gonçalo Ramos pulled up with an overload in the soleus muscle in his left calf and was left out of the squad for the Europa League away trip. According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the Portuguese striker will undergo an MRI scan on Thursday morning, 22 October. The assessment of his availability against Inter will also depend on that scan.

For now, the only match he is certain to miss is against Bournemouth. Milan’s medical staff hope it is merely soreness: if a muscle injury were found, however, the striker would miss the match in Udine on 25 October and, in all likelihood, the derby too. That is the scenario outlined by the newspaper, with no examination results yet available to establish a recovery timeline.

For Amorim, the problem also concerns his alternatives at centre-forward. Camarda is the other specialist striker in the squad and could keep his place in the European fixture, having started the 4-0 win in Salzburg. Corriere della Sera identifies deploying Pulisic in the role as another option should Ramos’s lay-off prove lengthy.

AC Milan v Inter is scheduled for Saturday 31 October at 20:45 CET, with Milan at home, in Serie A’s tenth round of fixtures. The first step towards establishing whether Milan will have to face that match without Ramos therefore remains the MRI scan on 22 October.