CM: Origi’s injury prevented Lazetic from joining Empoli – the background | OneFootball

Marko Lazetic bagged a brace for AC Milan in today’s friendly against Pergolettese, showing his qualities in front of Stefano Pioli. A few weeks back, he came close to leaving the Rossoneri on loan.

The Serbian forward arrived from Red Star Belgrade in January and he only got a few minutes of playing time with the first team this past season. A loan move has been on the cards for quite some time, therefore, but yet he’s still at Milan.

According to Daniele Longo of Calciomercato.com, Empoli had more or less secured the arrival of Lazetic when Milan blocked the deal at the last second. In fact, Divock Origi’s injury prompted the Rossoneri to keep Lazetic in the squad for depth.

The situation is the same today: Lazetic will not leave on loan until Origi has recovered. Milan will play the season opener against Udinese next Saturday and they feel they cannot have just Olivier Giroud up front (excluding Ante Rebic).