AC Milan winger Rafael Leao is set to return to action against Inter Milan in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final tomorrow (Tuesday).
Leao missed the first leg last week due to a muscle injury sustained in a Serie A victory over Lazi which Milan lost by two goals.
"Rafa is fine,” Milan's head coach Stefano Piolo confirmed to reporters. “He did nearly all the training session yesterday, today we hope he completes it.”
Pioli kept the Portuguese forward out of his squad for the weekend defeat at Spezia but will now recall him after a successful return to training.
The 57-year-old also confirmed that two more players will be set to return in action should everything go the right way.
"Rade Krunic and Junior Messias are too. If everything goes as it should, they’ll be available for training later and for tomorrow,” he added.
Given their two-goal deficit, Milan's coach is hoping to create a siege mentality for his squad as they will be looking forward to pulling off one of the all-time great Champions League comebacks.
“It's not easy to prepare for tomorrow,” he continued. “But we have an important goal: to win the match and to qualify for the final, which nobody would ever predict.
“Nobody still thinks that Milan can reach the final. I know we can play a great match,” he concluded.
Last week Ac Milan was handed out a 2-0 loss against arch-rivals Inter Milan at San Siro today in the UCL semi-final on May 10.
Inter scored two goals within 12 minutes of the game with the help of Edin Dzeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to get ahead of Milan.
After which Pioli responded that Milan could not take their chances.
“We had the chances in the second half, so naturally in the second leg, we need more quality and a more aggressive attitude. We need to raise the bar and play from the start with something much closer to the second-half performance,” he said.
“The lads are well aware this wasn’t the performance or the result we wanted, they are disappointed, but we know we still have a chance to turn it around,” Pioli added.