Luciano Spalletti Confirms Mauro Icardi Will Return to Inter Starting XI to Face Genoa

Luciano Spalletti has confirmed that Mauro Icardi will return to the Inter starting XI to face Genoa in Serie A on Wednesday.

In an off-field soap opera which has dragged on for almost two months, Icardi was stripped of the captaincy at Inter and dropped from any first team action - only to return to training last week. 

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He was expected to feature against Lazio at the weekend, but Spalletti opted to leave him out of the squad altogether, claiming he needed to atone for his previous mistakes.

It now appears that Spalletti has forgiven Icardi is prepared to move on as, in a pre-match press conference (via Inter's Twitter page), the Italian coach has confirmed that Icardi will be starting against Genoa.

"Mauro Icardi is available. The work done by Marotta has been instrumental in ensuring that all parties can take part in a real discussion and not virtual. This now means that Icardi is in a position to help the team.

"Tomorrow, Icardi will start. He's shown the right reaction mentally, something which is more important than the physical side of things. We'll see how long he'll be able to remain on the pitch and if we'll need to take him off.

"The squad is together as one. And a strong squad is something which defines Inter."

Icardi's return to the starting XI is likely to have come about after the recent injury to compatriot Lautaro Martinez, who missed out against Lazio, subsequently forcing Keita Balde to start in an unfamiliar role at the point of Inter's attack.