West Ham United striker Gianluca Scamacca could be set to start against his club captain Declan Rice on Thursday night when his country Italy hosts England in Naples.
The two sides will meet in Italy in the first of eight qualifying matches for the 2024 European Championships in a repeat of the Euro 2020 final (played 12 months later following the coronavirus pandemic).
Scamacca, who has scored eight goals for the Hammers since his £30.5million arrival from Sassuolo last summer, was a surprise call up to Roberto Mancini’s side having hardly played in the last month since returning from a knee injury.
READ MORE : West Ham ace handed late international call-up to face England after Inter Milan star’s injury
The 24-year-old has been left on the bench in each of the Hammers’ last four Premier League matches, with West Ham manager David Moyes recently citing a drop off in his physical data as the reason for it.
Prior to linking up with his country, Scamacca was handed a start against AEK Larnaca in the Europa Conference League, his first start in two and a half months. He scored 20 minutes into the 4-0 victory, having been replaced after 54 minutes against the Cypriot outfit.
However, Scamacca is in contention to start for the Azzurri on Thursday night at Napoli’s home inside the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, according to reports from Sky Italia .
The report suggests that Scamacca is in frame to start ahead of Argentine-born Mateo Retegui, who has earned his first Italy call-up for their double header with England and Malta.
It would be Scamacca’s tenth senior international appearance, should he feature, although he is yet to score for his country.
Rice is likely to start in the heart of England’s midfield for the game, having played 39 times for England, including 36 starts.
Another player who could feature when Italy host England is West Ham left-back Emerson. Having not made Italy’s initial squad, Emerson was given a late call-up on Monday following an injury to Inter Milan’s Federico Dimarco.
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