Atalanta-Napoli: Zapata called up and then against Leipzig …

A nice birthday present, one day late. Yesterday Duvan Zapata celebrated his 31st birthday with a beautiful cake in the shape of Rolex, today he was included, somewhat surprisingly, in the Nerazzurri squad for Atalanta-Napoli. The clock, the real one, will have served him to count all the hours away from the field. Duvan was injured for the first time during Genoa-Atalanta, the last match before Christmas. Over a month of absence, then in the match against Cagliari at Gewiss the return. A few minutes off the bench and a new stop, this time much more serious. It was feared that he would have to be operated on and his season was even over. And instead, not even two months later, here is his name reappearing on the team’s list for what could be the last call for the run-up to the top four places in the standings that are worth qualifying for the Champions League. Good news, not so much for tomorrow, but for the final sprint both in the league and, above all, in the Europa League.

Plan

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Slow down, however, with enthusiasm. Zapata will go to the bench and in all likelihood will not even enter against Napoli, so as not to force the timing too much and repeat the mistake made with Cagliari. Rather, the call-up will serve him to savor the air of the pitch and the match. The Colombian striker, in fact, returned to work with his team mates in Zingonia only a day ago, after the long recovery phase carried out near Seville, at the international clinic “Carlos Moreno”. He is fine, he feels okay, but it is conceivable a journey in stages for his full return to normalcy: bench with Napoli, perhaps a few minutes in Leipzig in the Europa League on Thursday, then a more substantial portion of the match at the home of the Sassuolo and finally the race to a jersey as a starter in the cup return with the Germans on April 14th.