Inter Milan Worry As Argentina & France Stars’ Preseasons Could Be Disrupted By Olympics | OneFootball

Inter Milan strikers Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram could have their preseasons disrupted by the summer Olympics.

This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews.

Both of Inter captain Martinez and striker Thuram have given their availability for the upcoming Olympics.

The summer Olympic games in Paris will include a football tournament in August.

The Olympics tournament is not considered to be as prestigious as other international competitions such as the World Cup, the Euros, and the Copa America.

Moreover, the rules for player selection are fairly restrictive. The majority of any nation’s squad must be younger players.

But the rules do allow for the inclusion of three players over the age of 23 in each nation’s squad.

Therefore, coaches can select top senior players.

Whether or not they do is another question. Moreover, players may turn down calls from the Olympic national team to concentrate on their club and other international duties.

But this year, both Martinez and Thuram have indicated that if they are called up for the Olympics, they intend to compete.

Martinez & Thuram Could Have Inter Preseasons Disrupted By Olympics

If Martinez, Thuram, or both do participate in the Olympics it could pose problems for Inter.

The football tournament at the summer games is scheduled for early August.

The gold medal match will take place on August 9th.

Therefore, any participating player could be unavailable for their clubs until well into August.

That would entail missing a significant chunk of the preseason. The players would only wrap up their Olympic duty a couple weeks before the start of the Serie A season.

Naturally, that is hardly a situation Inter would relish with one or both of their starting strikers.

Moreover, adding even more matches to the fixture list would also be problematic.

The fixture calendar is already a gruelling one for players, between club and international matches.

Martinez will be in action for Argentina this summer already at the Euros. As Thuram will be for France, at the Euros.

Moreover, the upcoming club season will have an expanded schedule. The Club World Cup only wraps up next July.

Therefore, there is a real risk of exhaustion for the players considering the number of matches they could be playing in.