Victor Osimhen may be fit to play in Napoli’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Milan on Wednesday, according to Luciano Spalletti.
The striker has 25 goals in 29 games for I Partenopei this season, but he suffered a thigh injury while representing Nigeria during the international break last month, forcing him to miss last Sunday’s 4-0 loss to Milan.
Napoli bounced back from that humiliation with a 2-1 win over Lecce on Friday, when Osimhen was once again absent.
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Federico Di Francesco cancelled out Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s header before Antonino Gallo’s second-half own goal gave Napoli the win.
“It wasn’t easy to secure this result after last Sunday’s defeat and some injuries,” Spalletti said at a post-match press conference.
“A delicate situation had arisen, due to how we lost [to Milan] and because the Rossoneri are our next opponents in the Champions League.
“Then everyone thinks these are filler games but that’s not the case.
“It was essential to demonstrate that we were able to express ourselves again on good levels and that we had that kind of character.
“For this I congratulate the players.
“These three points give us peace of mind to face the next matches.”
On Osimhen, Spalletti revealed: “We need to see how he reacts to strong physical activities, so far he’s done some basic jogging.
“It’s difficult without him, because he has this way of running into space, this physicality, he can draw everyone to him and create the space for his team-mates.
“[Giacomo] Raspadori had a good first half tonight, he linked up well with the midfielders.
“We could have done it even better, because we brought too many balls back to the two centre-backs when there wasn’t a need.
“On the pitch, however, we were balanced.”
Giovanni Simeone came on in the second half to replace Raspadori, but was forced off with a knee injury soon after, potentially giving Spalletti a selection problem for the Milan game if Osimhen does not recover in time.
“We need to evaluate [Simeone] carefully,” he said.
“It appeared to be a muscular problem, then the knee, then above the knee.
“When he tried to come back on again, he felt the muscle harden and it was best not to risk it any further.”