Headline: Inter to Face Parma Without Curtis Jones as Sucic Emerges as Favourite Replacement
Inter faces Parma on Sunday without Curtis Jones, who is expected to miss three to four weeks with an adductor injury. Petar Sucic is now the reported favourite to fill his place.
Football Italia reports Cristian Chivu has several internal options to fill the midfield vacancy. Jones had medical tests on Thursday and received a diagnosis of an adductor injury in his right thigh, labelled as myofascial.
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The 25-year-old kicked off Inter’s final match ahead of the international break, a 2-2 draw away at Roma alongside Nicolo Barella and Piotr Zielinski. Jones arrived from Liverpool in the summer transfer window for €35 million, leaving Chivu to decide his replacement for the Parma game and the weeks ahead.
Sucic Leads Inter’s Options to Replace Jones
If Barella and Hakan Calhanoglu start, the available alternatives for Jones’s place are Zielinski, Sucic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Aleksandar Stankovic. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Sucic is the leading candidate to start against Parma.
The Croatia international entered from the bench in his nation’s final match of the international break. Zielinski did the opposite, starting all four of Poland’s games and playing the full 90 minutes on Monday, which reportedly sways the preference for Sucic.
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Mkhitaryan follows in the reported ranking, and Stankovic is likely to get chances while Jones recovers. This decision gives Chivu a ready-made replacement inside the squad. It would not alter the core midfield pairing he plans to pick.