Soccer-Inter’s Mkhitaryan out of Lazio clash due to hamstring injury

Inter Milan midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan will miss Friday’s Serie A clash at Lazio as he is yet to recover from a hamstring injury sustained following their season opener against Lecce, manager Simone Inzaghi said on Thursday. The 33-year-old Armenian, who joined Inter following his departure from fellow Italian side AS Roma in the close season, came on as a substitute in the 2-1 win before getting injured and missed their 3-0 victory over Spezia last weekend.

“We’ll have to try and have all players available. Tomorrow everyone leaves (for Rome), except Mkhitaryan,” Inzaghi told a news conference. The Italian manager said he was happy with how striker Romelu Lukaku had started the campaign on his return to the club after the Belgium international scored against Lecce.

“I think he played the first two matches in the best way,” Inzaghi said. “It’s not a matter that concerns only Lukaku, but the whole team. We know his condition is improving, we know we have players with important physicality. “We’ve started well, we want to continue trying to improve all our players. We also want to recover Mkhitaryan, who will be very important in the next 19 games.”

Inzaghi said he expected a tough challenge at his former side after they were held to a goalless draw by Torino following a win over Bologna in the first round. “We’re facing a strong team that has improved this season… They have kept all their strong players and we know we’ll have to have a personality match,” Inzaghi said.

“Because we’ll find a prepared, organised team, an important stadium with many people. We’ll have to play a careful game.”

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