Atalanta: Kolasinac stops again, misses Udinese

Bergamo, 7 November 2024 – New stop for Sead Kolasinac. The 31-year-old defender, born and raised in Germany but with a Bosnian passport, is not having much luck in his homeland: a month ago he was forced to miss the match in Gelsenkirchen, where the Ukrainians of Shakthar play, at the home of Schalke 04, the stadium where he made his Bundesliga debut, due to a muscle problem. And last night in Stuttgart, in the Champions League match won by the Goddess, he was forced to limp out, stopped after just 11 minutes by a muscle strain in the adductor.

Injury to be assessed in the next few days, but The Bosnian will almost certainly miss Sunday's home game against Udinese and will probably have to give up the call-up to the Bosnian national team. 

Muscles of silk

Second seasonal muscle injury for the former Arsenal and Marseille player, who also left the pitch due to a grievance at the end of the Super Cup match in Warsaw against Real Madrid in August. Gasperini, however, has a ready and hot replacement: the 23-year-old Ghanaian Odilon Kossounou, who came on in Stuttgart to replace Kolasinac and played a masterly match in defence alongside Isak Hien.

Curiously, Germany, hostile to Kolasinac in terms of bad luck, seems to bring luck to Kossounou, who spent three years in the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen, with whom he won the title and the national cup last season: a month ago he made his Champions League debut playing as a starter in Gelsenkirchen against Shakthar, right in place of Kolasinac, and last night he collected his second appearance in the queen's cup in Stuttgart. And on Sunday Kossounou is a candidate for a starting shirt against Udinese.