For the captain, who has already been through the grind with the Nerazzurri, there are two more matches against Paraguay and Peru.
It’s clear to everyone now how much Inter is relying on ‘Il Toro‘. Simone Inzaghi has placed the entire team’s burden on the broad shoulders of his captain, and the risks of his dependence are quite dangerous.
What would happen if, by chance, the Argentine were to be injured, even briefly, given the heavy workload of matches? To make matters worse, having already accumulated 12 appearances out of 12 between Serie A and the Champions League, it’s highly likely, if not certain, that Martinez will have additional commitments with the national team.
There’s a double challenge of World Cup qualifiers, and Argentina is defending its title. In the night (Italian time) between Thursday and Friday, Paraguay arrives at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, followed by a match against Peru next week between Tuesday the 17th and Wednesday the 18th in Lima.
In his time at Inter so far, Lautaro has only been rested for 84 minutes, and in the remaining 816 minutes, he’s been firing on all cylinders, with 11 goals scored already at the beginning of October. Sometimes, he would benefit from just watching his teammates from the bench to recharge his batteries, but Inzaghi’s rotations up front have been significantly reduced. It’s not a coincidence that in the only match where he came off the bench, Martinez was even more lethal than usual, scoring four goals in just 27 minutes in Salerno.
Inside the World Cup-winning team, Lautaro will compete for the central attacking role with Julian Alvarez, and this offensive rivalry is likely to continue for quite some time. This time, coach Scaloni may be tempted to field them together with Messi being out with Injury.
Now the bad news and the headache for coach Inzaghi is that: he will only arrive in Appiano on Thursday the 19th, just 48 hours prior, the challenging away match against Torino. After the draw against Bologna, there’s no room for further stumbles, both for Inter and for its captain, who knows no rest and is risking a lot with very long journey ahead of him.
