Leonardo Bonucci has apologised for the state in which the Italian national team left the dressing room in the aftermath of their damaging World Cup play-off defeat to North Macedonia.
The European Champions succumbed to a shock 1-0 loss on Thursday as Aleksandar Trajkovski's stoppage-time winner left the Azzurri's dreams of playing in this year's Qatar showpiece in tatters. The result means Roberto Mancini 's men will miss out on a second successive World Cup.
Italy have been widely criticised for their failure in the days since and things have now gone from bad to worse. Mancini's side have been further condemned after leaked photos revealed the state in which his team left their Palermo dressing room.
Pictures revealed cigarette butts, plastic bottles, used tissues and food waste scattered around the changing facilities following Italy's heartbreaking defeat. In response to the backlash following his team's lack of respect, Juventus centre-back Bonucci has since issued an apology.
As reported by Football Italia, Bonucci declared: "It was a big mistake. Next time, we'll pay more attention.
"We were very disappointed and we didn't think that these details make the difference sometimes. We'll pay more attention in the next matches, we apologise."
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Bonucci's comments were further echoed by Italy's communication chief Paolo Corbi, who also issued an apology, while clarifying that the images weren't a true reflection of the dressing room's condition. He said: "It's an aspect that we underestimated and we've already apologised to Palermo Calcio.
"We had to catch the flight for Coverciano and there was a huge disappointment even if, we must say, the state of the dressing room when we left was not exactly the one shown in the video. It was not all down to us."
The result sent shockwaves around the world as Italy were regarded as one of the favourites heading into the World Cup following their European Championship success last summer. The Azzurri's defeat to North Macedonia means it is the minnows who will face Portugal in Tuesday night's play-off final to determine who will be heading to Qatar.
Following the defeat, Italy will now face Turkey in a friendly match on Tuesday instead. Speaking ahead of that match, Bonucci opened up on the impact the World Cup exit has had on Italy's squad.
He added: "The hours after the eliminations have been tough. We remained quiet during our moments together, like team lunches or dinners. That was the most challenging part.
"We tried to play down the disappointment by saying that young players will have other opportunities, while the older ones like myself only had one last chance. After the coach spoke to us, we put the past behind our shoulders and we re-connected with the future.
"The future is now so we must start again to rebuild and get what we didn't achieve. We have a solid base to come back."
