The engagement of Mats Hummels at AS Roma is not yet under a particularly good star. Now the 2014 World Cup winner is apparently also missing the debut of coach Claudio Ranieri due to illness.
Mats Hummels’ record since joining AS Roma at the beginning of September is simply sobering. Partly because coach Daniele de Rossi, who is said to have convinced Hummels to move to the Italian capital, was dismissed in September, the 2014 World Cup winner has only managed 23 minutes of action.
De Rossi’s successor Ivan Juric found various reasons why he didn’t want to use Hummels. Due to a lack of personnel, the Croatian “perforce” threw Hummels in at the deep end for the first time on October 27 at a very inopportune time – with the score at 1:4 in Florence. Four minutes after his substitution, he scored an unfortunate own goal to make the final score 1:5. Since then, Hummels has been left out again.
Hummels commented on the renewed change of coach in Rome – the unsuccessful Juric had to leave on November 10 – with a sense of humor, as he had done before about his role on the bench in the social media. Four days after Juric’s departure, Roma installed Claudio Ranieri, who had been brought out of retirement, as Hummels’ third coach in Rome.
The 73-year-old was then asked about Hummels at his first press conference. Ranieri replied: “I saw Hummels in the Champions League semi-final against PSG. Why shouldn’t he play?”
So the cards are being reshuffled, and the chances of him playing are likely to increase dramatically. But not in Ranieri’s debut after the international break in Naples on Sunday – Hummels will apparently miss that due to a feverish cold, as reported by Corriere dello Sport on Wednesday.
According to the report, Hummels has not yet returned to Rome after a weekend in Germany. However, the central defender would not have been used anyway because he is “not in top form,” the newspaper claims.
The away game in Naples is followed by further major challenges, which Hummels would be happy to take on – in the Europa League, the away game at Tottenham Hotspur awaits, and then on December 2, Ranieri’s home premiere against Atalanta Bergamo.