Atalanta manager Raffaele Palladino says the club will miss Ademola Lookman when he joins Nigeria for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, SportPremi reports.
The Super Eagles forward was included in Eric Chelle’s 54-man preliminary squad and will certainly be included in the final 28-man squad for the tournament.
The 28-year-old has been a regular for the national team since making his debut in 2022 after switching allegiances from England.
The 2024 African footballer of the year award winner has played over 30 competitive games for the country and was among the squad that won silver medal at the last AFCON tournament.
- Read this: Atalanta manager describes role in Ademola Lookman’s return to form
- De Ketelaere hails Lookman’s impact at Atalanta
Lookman is also beginning to find form at the Italian side, with two goals in his last three appearances for the club.
He played the entire 90 minutes in last weekend’s 3-1 defeat to Hellas Verona in the Serie A, which halted their three-game winning streak.
Palladino speaks on Lookman’s absence
Atalanta will be without the services of Ademola Lookman and Odilon Kossounou for the next few weeks due to their commitments for Nigeria and Ivory Coast respectively.
Both players could miss up to six games for La Dea between the period of the tournament which runs from the 21st of December till the 18th of January if their country gets to the final.
Speaking in an interview, Raffaele Palladino expressed disappointment at missing some of his key players ahead of a crucial time in the season.
“We are losing two important players for us, strong, decisive, but we are getting back Kolasinac and Scalvini, who are equally important. We need to get Sulemana back, who had this minor issue; I try to get everyone back, because I need everyone to feel involved”, Palladino admitted.
The Atalanta manager was also unhappy with his side’s performance in the defeat to Hellas Verona, ending their three-game unbeaten run.
“In any case, our first half was truly terrible, so we take responsibility for that, we apologise to our fans. We didn’t understand the type of match that we needed to play”, he continued.
“We knew Verona would have intensity and focus on the duels, as they are the team statistically with the least average possession in Serie A this season. They were always going to be direct with vertical passes, but we got the attitude entirely wrong, we didn’t understand we had to adapt to their approach.
“We were sluggish. It’s probably my fault, I wasn’t able to transmit the right focus. Now we’ve got to lick our wounds, analyse the match, and ensure this never happens again to my team. When we did react, it was too late to turn it around.”
Atalanta welcome Chelsea to the Gewiss Stadium on Tuesday, before facing Cagliari in the Serie A next weekend.
