Fiorentina midfielder Riccardo Montolivo was the unlucky player to be dropped from coach Roberto Donadoni’s Italy squad for Euro 2008.
Donadoni picked a 24-man squad last week and waited until today to name one player he had to drop ahead of June’s tournament in Austria and Switzerland.
“It has been a difficult choice, made solely for numerical reasons,” Donadoni told a news conference at Italy’s training base outside Florence.
“Montolivo has conducted himself really well in recent days and there isn’t a problem with his fitness.”
The world champions face Belgium in a friendly in Florence on Friday ahead of their Euro 2008 Group C matches against Holland, Romania and France.
Italy squad:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Marco Amelia (Livorno), Morgan De Sanctis (Sevilla)
Defenders: Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Marco Materazzi (Inter), Christian Panucci (Roma), Andrea Barzagli (Palermo), Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Fabio Grosso (Lyon)
Midfielders: Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Massimo Ambrosini (Milan), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Simone Perrotta (Roma), Alberto Aquilani (Roma), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus)
Forwards: Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Marco Borriello (Genoa), Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese), Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria, on loan from Real Madrid).
