Italy leave out Chelsea’s Palestra, recall Mandragora after five years, trust Maldini

Italy leave out Chelsea’s Palestra, recall Mandragora after five years, trust Maldini There were some doubts over Roberto Mancini’s first Italy squad, as Daniel Maldini is included despite his recent incident, Rolando Mandragora returns after five years, but Chelsea man Marco Palestra misses out. The Azzurri will play four Nations League fixtures during this break for international duty, against Belgium on September 25, Turkiye on September 28, France on October 2 and then the Turkish side again on October 5. The group is completed on November 12 with France and November 15 in Belgium. Mancini called nine new faces , but there were a few other surprises and interesting decisions too. Italy surprises, recalls and big decisions ZENICA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – MARCH 31: Tarik Muharemovic of Bosnia & Herzegovina competes for the ball with Marco Palestra of Italy during the FIFA World Cup 2026 European Qualifiers KO play-offs match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy at Stadion Bilino Polje on March 31, 2026 in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images) It had been predicted that Palestra would miss out, considering he is yet to make his competitive debut for Chelsea after sustaining an injury in pre-season. There were question marks however over whether Maldini would get the nod, considering the controversy over his car accident, where his licence was suspended for testing narrowly over the alcohol limit. It had been reported, later confirmed to be inaccurately, that Maldini had failed a drugs test too, but all toxicology tests came back negative. Cagliari are standing by him, insisting he will start the next Serie A match this weekend. ROME, ITALY – MAY 13: Daniel Maldini of SS Lazio before the Coppa Italia final match between SS Lazio and FC Internazionale at Stadio Olimpico on May 13, 2026 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Marco Rosi – SS Lazio/Getty Images) There are some returns to the Italy squad, because both Nicolò Fagioli and Nicolò Zaniolo had not been included since October 2024. Fiorentina player Fagioli has seven senior caps for Italy, while Zaniolo was famously given his first call by Mancini before even making a single Serie A appearance. He now has 19 caps, the most recent in March 2024 against Ecuador, but the last competitive appearance was in November 2023 with Ukraine. COMO, ITALY – JANUARY 03: Nicolo’ Zaniolo of Udinese Calcio interacts with Hassane Kamara of Udinese Calcio during the Serie A match between Como 1907 and Udinese Calcio at Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium on January 03, 2026 in Como, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images) More remarkably, new Torino midfielder Mandragora is featured for the first time since March 2021, a gap of over five years. The 29-year-old earned his first and so far only senior Italy cap in June 2018, during a 3-1 friendly defeat to France.