U21: Napoli block Milik and Zielinski

By Football Italia staff

Napoli have formally refused to release Arkadiusz Milik and Piotr Zielinski for international duty with Poland at the European Under-21 Championship.

The tournament will run from June 13-30 with Poland as the hosts, so they were hoping to bring in a very strong squad.

However, the Polish Federation published a letter received from Napoli warning that Milik and Zielinski would not be released for international duty.

“We had more than 50 official matches during this season and the new one will start on 30.06.2017, when all the players will gather for the preparation of the 2017/18 season,” read the letter.

“As the UEFA European Under-21 Championship is not included in the FIFA International Calendar, Clubs are not obliged to release their players for this kind of competition and we cannot have the players back in the Club only in the second half of July.”

If Napoli finish third behind Roma in Serie A, they will have to go through a Champions League preliminary round in August.

Milik has only just returned from a lengthy injury lay-off after rupturing his ACL while playing for Poland in October.

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