Brief news ahead of this weekend's matches in Serie A.
Brief news ahead of this weekend's matches in Serie A (all times GMT):
* Adrian Mutu will be unavailable for fifth-placed Fiorentina''s visit to Udinese on Sunday (1400) and risks missing their last two Champions League group matches after the club said he needed surgery on a knee problem.
The Romania forward suffered the injury in Wednesday''s 5-2 win over Hungarians Debrecen in the Champions League, which consolidated the Italians'' hold on second place in Group E, giving them a five-point advantage over Liverpool.
Centre back Alessandro Gamberini is out for three weeks with a thigh strain, goalkeeper Sebastien Frey and forward Stevan Jovetic have hand and toe problems respectively and defender Dario Dainelli is suspended for this weekend's match.
* Defender Giorgio Chiellini has admitted the seven-point lead champions Inter Milan have built has hit Juventus''s morale. "We are a bit demoralised in the domestic championship, we didn''t expect to be seven points behind after 11 matches," the Italy centre back was quoted as saying by Friday''s La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The Turin club, who share second place with Sampdoria, will be depleted again for Saturday's game at Atalanta (1945), with Amauri suspended and fellow forwards Vincenzo Iaquinta and Alessandro Del Piero among those on a long injured list.
* Struggling Atalanta could be without as many as 10 players through injury and illness.
* Inter Milan should be at full strength for Sunday''s home game against AS Roma (1945) and in confident mood after Wednesday''s 2-1 comeback win at Dynamo Kiev lifted them from bottom to top of their Champions League group.
* Roma, who pushed Inter all the way in the title chase two seasons ago but are 14th at the moment, will travel to the San Siro without suspended winger Rodrigo Taddei, while captain Francesco Totti is recovering from knee surgery.
* Ronaldinho is not ruling AC Milan out of the title race ahead of Sunday's match at lowly Lazio (1400) after they recovered from a shaky start to climb to fourth, nine points behind Inter.
"It''s hard (to win the title) but anything can happen," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport, adding that he is optimistic of regaining his Brazil place and hopes to play until he is 40.
* Lazio, who have not won in Serie A since August and were thrashed 4-1 at Villarreal in the Europa League on Thursday, hope striker Julio Cruz can shake off a thigh problem to take the field.
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