Paratici confirms Fiorentina worry for Kean, Under-23 fundamental for reforms

Fiorentina director Fabio Paratici gives a worrying injury update on Moise Kean ahead of tonight’s game with Lazio and confirms Under-23 teams are ‘fundamental’ for reforms.

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It kicks off at the Stadio Artemio Franchi at 19.45 UK time (20.45 CEST).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.

The Viola go into this match after Thursday’s 3-0 Conference League quarter-final defeat to Crystal Palace and they have an injury crisis on their hands.

Kean, Fabiano Parisi, Marco Brescianini, Niccolò Fortini, Luca Lezzerini and Tariq Lamptey are injured, with Albert Gudmundsson and Nicolò Fagioli suspended.

Paratici gives Fiorentina updates

“Kean is giving his all to recover as quickly as possible, but we are not sure what the timing is for a full recovery, because his condition tends to go up and down,” Paratici told DAZN Italia.

“I would prefer to focus on those who are present, as Piccoli is doing very well and we have a lot of faith in him.”

Paratici arrived in February after leaving Tottenham Hotspur, so has he managed to identify what problems Fiorentina had to cause their struggles?

“When a club does not live up to expectations, there are many different problems, but we want to focus on the solutions. We rolled our sleeves up and are working hard, we know it will be a struggle to the end, and point by point, we’ll earn our place in Serie A,” said Paratici.

Italian football is trying to transform itself following the failed World Cup qualification campaign, so today 18 out of 20 clubs gave their backing to Giovanni Malagò as new FIGC President.

“Malagò is someone who has already had a very prestigious role with excellent results. He is a charismatic figure who can represent us at a certain level, with new ideas that we should all together help to propose and enact as Italian football as a whole,” continued Paratici.

“The Under-23 team is in my view a fundamental part of the reforms, as more clubs should set up the Under-23 team. When Fiorentina are organised enough to set it up, then we will, as we have a strong youth academy and believe this is a necessary step for the young players.”

This is a reunion this evening between Paratici and Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri, who had a brief experience together at Juventus.

“I have not yet run into Sarri, I wish to underline that he was with us for a year at Juve and everyone talked about it as if this was not positive, yet we won the Scudetto, lost he Coppa Italia Final on penalties and the Supercoppa Italiana, so I’d say that was a very strong campaign.”