Europa League, Roma: Ivan Juric has one more problem

Lorenzo Pellegrini in doubt for the match against Athletic Bilbao'Athletic Bilbao

After winning for the first time this season in official matches, beating Udinese 3-0, Roma is preparing to return to the pitch Thursday evening for the first day of the Europa League Phase, again at the Stadio Olimpico, against Athletic Bilbao. A match for which Giallorossi coach Ivan Juric is likely to do without one of the team’s most representative elements, Lorenzo Pellegrini.

In fact, the Roma captain has not yet totally recovered from the knee contusion suffered during the very match against Udinese, which had led the Croatian coach to replace him at 69' with Tommaso Baldanzi. Pellegrini è still trained separately and thus remains strongly in doubt for Thursday’s match.

Already certain instead is the absence of Enzo Le Fee, who is recovering from the muscle injury suffered in late August that kept him out of the matches against Juventus, Genoa and Udinese. The only other unavailable player è Alexis Saelemaekers, who will be out until at least mid-November due to a fractured ankle suffered against Genoa.

For Roma, the one that starts on Thursday is the 11th consecutive season in the European cups: from 2015 onward, it won the 2021/22 Conference League, played in and lost on penalties the 2022/23 Europa League final against Sevilla and, at Champions League level, reached the semifinals in 2017/18, eliminated by Liverpool in turn defeated by Real Madrid in the final.