The Milan star says he is devastated at not being able to
face Spain in the Confederations Cup semi-final following a strained thigh
muscle
Italy striker Mario Balotelli says he "feels like a
loser" after injury has deprived him of the opportunity to gain
"revenge" over Spain ahead of Thursday's Confederations Cup
semi-final.
The Milan forward was sent home from Brazil on Monday
after sustaining a muscle injury which is likely to sideline him for a number
of weeks.
And, speaking to Sky Sport Italia, the Rossoneri star
expressed his disappointment having missed the chance to enact
"revenge" over la Roja following last summer's 4-0 defeat in the
final of the European Championship.
"I feel like a loser having to leave this way. I
would have liked to have stayed on with my team-mates, but we have the
Champions League playoff round with Milan, so I need to recover for that."
His departure means Alberto Gilardino is likely to
deputise, and Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio believes the introduction
of the Bologna forward will compensate for the absence of the 22-year-old.
He told a press conference: "We will miss Mario
because he is a great champion.
"He has matured and it has shown in this
Confederations Cup.
"Surely he wanted to play a part in this kind of
revenge and we are sad that we will not have him, but we do have players like
Gilardino who is very experienced so we are not worried."
Meanwhile, Marchisio, who has featured in all three of
his country's games in the competition, believes the Azzurri will go into the
clash hopeful of staging an upset after holding the world champions to a 1-1
draw in the Group C curtain-raiser of last summer's European Championship.
"We have to be as good as we were when we faced them
in our first game of the European Championship," he added.
"We made it difficult for the world champions so we
will not take to the field thinking we have already been beaten on Thursday.
"Spain are the best and they have proved that by
winning everything possible, but we happily matched them at times last year and
we proved that."
The clash is scheduled to kick off at 21:00 CET.
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