Serie A leaders Inter Milan will be without Alexis Sanchez and Juan Cuadrado when they take on Lazio in Rome.
Manager Simone Inzaghi takes his side to his former club boasting a strong run of form that has seen them win seven and draw two of their last nine games.
Things have also been going well in the Champions League, with early qualification for the last 16 allowing Inzaghi to ring the changes for the midweek stalemate against Real Sociedad.
Both Sanchez and Cuadrado started that game but drop out straight away. Sanchez has been rested due to muscle fatigue but the prognosis for Cuadrado appears more serious.
The 35-year-old, a free transfer from Juventus over the summer, is reportedly set for surgery on his Achilles and is facing a lay-off measured in months rather than weeks.
Inter are already without Denzel Dumfries and Stefan de Vrij but their numbers at the back are improved by the return to fitness of Benjamin Pavard, who should rejoin the matchday squad for the first time since he picked up an injury against Atalanta six weeks ago.
Up front, Inzaghi will restore top-scorer Lautaro Martinez to the starting XI after he was kept to 25 minutes off the bench on Tuesday night.
Martinez and Marcus Thuram have formed a strong understanding together and the Frenchman believes they benefit from being on the same wavelength.
In an interview with the Serie A YouTube channel, Thuram said: “There are many things about the partnership, but what I really like most is his technique and his sense of goal.
“We complement each other well. Lautaro is a very intelligent player and I try to be very intelligent too. We are two players who respect the game and it’s easier to play with someone like that.”
Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio finished second last season but have drifted into mid-table after a disappointing sequence in the league.
They have won just one of their last five in Serie A and qualified in second place from their Champions League group despite concluding with a 2-0 loss at Atletico Madrid.
Midfielder Nicolo Rovella is hoping he can affect the result, even though he admits coming from an Inter-supporting home.
“I come from an Nerazzurri family, so my family will be there but I hope they cheer for me!” he said.
“We are a strong team and we will take the field to win. We’re only thinking about doing well on the pitch and we’re all fighting for the same objectives. We’ll see at the end of the season what we manage to achieve.”
De Rossi demands more from 'tired' Roma ahead of crunch run
Daniele De Rossi acknowledged his Roma team may be tired, but he insisted they must not allow themselves to be embarrassed.
Roma fought back to draw 2-2 with last season's Serie A champions Napoli in a pulsating fixture on Sunday.
Tammy Abraham's late header secured a point for De Rossi's team, who took the lead through Paulo Dybala's penalty before going behind to goals from Matias Olivera and Victor Osimhen.
With Serie A set to have five teams in the Champions League next season, Roma occupy fifth spot with four matches remaining, but sixth-placed Atalanta are just two points behind with a game in hand.
There is also the small matter of a Europa League semi-final against Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen on the cards over the coming weeks, and De Rossi set the stall out.
"We drew, it is not a result to throw away, but it is not the result or the performance that we wanted," Roma coach Daniele De Rossi told Sky Sports Italia.
"At times you can steal the ball off Napoli, but we then gave it back again too many times. Napoli had a lot of chances in the first half, we did better in the second, but we have to do better.
"Look, we are tired, but we cannot start thinking that we’re tired and that means we can be embarrassed in the final few weeks of the season."
Roma host Leverkusen on Thursday before taking on Juventus on May 5, with a crunch clash against Atalanta – who are also into the Europa League semi-finals – set to follow after the away leg against Xabi Alonso's team.
Key to a successful end to the campaign for Roma will be keeping Dybala fit. The Argentine has been involved in the joint-most goals (12) in Serie A since the turn of the year, scoring nine and setting up three, level with Juve's Dusan Vlahovic.
Napoli 2-2 Roma: Late Abraham header denies wasteful hosts
A wasteful Napoli were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Roma in Serie A, with a late Tammy Abraham header securing a point for the visitors.
The visitors took the lead from the penalty spot a minute before the hour mark, with Paulo Dybala converting after Juan Jesus fouled Sardar Amzoun.
However, Napoli equalised six minutes later through Matias Olivera's deflected shot, and completed the turnaround with their own penalty six minutes from time as Victor Osimhen tucked away after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was felled by Renato Sanches.
The hosts could not hold on, though, and were pegged back with two minutes to go. Substitute Abraham's header from a corner was eventually awarded following a VAR review after he had initially been ruled offside.
Data debrief
Napoli remain eighth in the Serie A table on 50 points, the exact amount they had registered after their opening 19 games of last season.
Though his penalty was not enough to earn Roma victory, Dybala continued his impressive start to 2024, during which he has been involved in the joint-most goals in Serie A with 12 (nine goals, three assists).
Inter's 'leader' Inzaghi upping the standards, says assistant Farris
Simone Inzaghi has set and maintained high standards at Inter, so says his Nerazzurri assistant Massimiliano Farris.
Inter clinched their 20th Serie A title by beating fierce rivals Milan in Monday's derby.
That meant that Sunday's home meeting with Torino was something of a celebration for Inter and their fans, and the team delivered with a 2-0 victory.
Hakan Calhanoglu scored both of Inter's goals, and Farris, who spoke to the media instead of his boss, piled the praise on Inzaghi.
In quotes reported by Football Italia, Farris told DAZN: "We've tried to build a positive environment. We lost important players [last summer], but we welcomed important players who made themselves loved.
"Going to the pitch and working this season was a pleasure. We had a lot of fun and it's the players' merit.
"We are Inter, we have great value, and we couldn't afford to lose games like we used to. He's our leader, he kept a high bar in difficult moments.
"Today, we are repaid for everything, and we can enjoy more of what happened in the previous two years. In football, defeats [hurt] more than victories, but now we must enjoy this moment."
With victory over Milan, Inzaghi became the second-fastest coach to reach 600 points in Serie A, after Carlo Ancelotti.
Farris added: "Simone already said it in the previous interviews. We’ve been fighting for every target across the last three years. We have won cups, we reached a Champions League final.
"We are aware that in the first season, we missed something that we could have taken home [the title].
"Perhaps it was the price to pay, as staff members, when you get to a club like this, but I think this season's achievements give value to all other trophies.
"Today's atmosphere was incredible, so good. Ninety minutes and more of celebrations and it was fair to start those who have brought the team here. This doesn't mean the others didn't contribute. On the contrary, everyone was helpful, I should name them all. I wouldn't even call them reserves."
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