Pirlo leaves 3 players out of Turin derby squad for Covid-19 protocol breach

Pirlo leaves 3 players out of Turin derby squad for Covid-19 protocol breach

Arthur Melo, Weston Mckennie and Paulo Dybala

Andrea Pirlo’s troubles at Juventus keeps on increasing this season as he faces the prospect of missing 3 players in Juventus’ next match. Juventus will take on Torino in the Turin derby and Paulo Dybala, Weston Mckennie and Arthur Melo will all miss out for Juventus because of a reported Covid-19 protocol breach before the match.

The three players were fined by the club after a party hosted by USA midfielder McKennie on Wednesday night in the hills above Turin. Dybala and Arthur were among 10 guests at the dinner party, which broke Covid-19 protocols with a nationwide curfew in place in Italy from 10pm to 5am, and Pirlo has taken further action by omitting the trio for Saturday’s Turin derby.

Pirlo remains defiant about his team’s chances this season in Serie A despite being 10 points behind Inter Milan

Neighbours of the American noticed a party going on at his residence and called the police. This is directly against Italian laws at the moment, which forbids individuals from holding private parties because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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“The three players involved are not called up for tomorrow’s game and will return to work over time, we’ll see when,” Pirlo told a news conference on Friday.

“I made the decision and the club did the rest. For the selection part, I decided. It was not the right time to do it (have a party), we are examples, and it is right that we behave like this.”

Juventus who are 10 points behind Serie A leaders Inter Milan will already miss the services of Gianluigi Buffon who received a 1 match ban for a blasphemous comment. However, Andrea Pirlo remained hopeful about his team’s chances of still winning the Scudetto this season and that their aim was to win all the remaining games and hope for the best.

“The approach is to win all the games, and then you see what happens both in front and behind.”

“The goal is to win the one tomorrow and then think about the next one, our goal is to win all the games. We are still in this season, there is much to play for,” he added.

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