Barcelona loanee Sergino Dest omitted from AC Milan’s UEFA Champions League squad | OneFootball

With the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League set to kick off shortly, teams have been asked to submit their final squad lists for the remainder of the tournament. And, Italian champions AC Milan have opted to leave out Barcelona loanee Sergino Dest from the squad.

This is reported by TuttoMercatoWeb, who state that the Rossoneri have omitted Dest so that they can accommodate Malick Thiaw in the squad for the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League.

Dest joined AC Milan in the summer on a season-long loan deal after struggling to make much of an impact in his first two years at Barcelona.

The USMNT international has struggled to make noteworthy contributions during his time at San Siro as well. To date, the 22-year-old has played just 14 times across all competitions for Stefano Pioli’s side, racking up a paltry total of 632 minutes.

So far, Dest has started just two Serie A games and one match in the Champions League, indicating that the Milan coaching staff might not have a great amount of faith in the former AFC Ajax ace.

AC Milan have the option of purchasing Dest permanently at the end of the season for a fee of €20 million. Reports had suggested that the Rossoneri would consider signing him on a full-time basis, albeit at a lower price.

But given how they have used him this season and the axing of the USMNT ace from the Champions League squad could indicate that they do not wish to take up that option.

Barça, for their part, do not see a future for Dest at Camp Nou in case he returns to the club at the end of the season. There are other interested parties in the right-back and the Blaugrana will look to cash in on him should Milan decide against his permanent signing.