Francesco Farioli gave FC Porto’s main squad a day off this Sunday, following the categorical victory achieved against Estoril, in a game counting for the tenth round of the I League, by 4-0. There were, still, those who ‘ignored’ the instructions and insisted on going to the Jorge Costa Sports Training and Training Center, in Olival.
This was the case of Zaidu Sanusi, William Gomes and Oskar Pietuszewski, who, according to this Monday’s edition of the newspaper A Bola, went to the blue and white complex to carry out additional recovery work, in a final attempt to recover in time for the fourth round of the Champions League league phase.
The clash with Napoli is scheduled to kick off at 8pm (Mainland Portugal time) next Wednesday, at Estádio do Dragão, and this trio is committed to saying ‘present’. Chris Smalling accompanied them, but, in this case, he is not registered in what is the biggest club competition in European football, so he will always be a ‘card out of the deck’.
The Nigerian left-back complained about his left knee, against the Canarinhos, which is why he was replaced by João Souza, at half-time, while the Brazilian winger suffered a grade 2 sprain in his right ankle on October 10th, during the victory achieved in the trip to the Estádio dos Barreiros, over MarÃtimo, by 1-2.
Both have a chance of receiving the ‘green light’ for the duel in the million-dollar competition, with the Polish international’s case being more complicated, who, remember, suffered a muscle injury in his left thigh last weekend, during the warm-up for the visit to Gil Vicente (0-1 triumph), meaning he had to give way to Borja Sainz (who would end up scoring the winning goal).
That leaves Chris Smalling, who is dealing with an injury to the internal collateral ligament of his right knee, which forced him to leave the field last Wednesday, when the defending national champions beat Académico de Viseu, 1-0 (and stamped their passport to the ‘final four’ of the League Cup), and should only be fit in the next calendar year of 2027.
David Neres and Alisson Santos will not return to Portugal
However, it is not just Francesco Farioli who has reason to be worried. On the other side of the ‘barricade’, also Italian Massimiliano Allegri confirmed, on Sunday, after the defeat suffered in the visit to Juventus, by 2-0, that he will not be able to count on David Neres and Alisson Santos for this FC Porto-Napoli.
They are two well-known faces in Portuguese football, as the first was linked to Benfica, between 2022 and 2024, while the second played a shorter spell at Sporting, between July 2025 and January 2026. Both are injured and are not in the Azzurri’s accounts.
The same applies to Benoit Badiashile, Leo Spinazzola, Constantino Favasuli and Stanislav Lobotka remain in the care of the clinical department of the current eighth-placed teams in Serie A, which means they are certain absences at the Estádio do Dragão.
