Milan’s international players return to training at Milanello

MARCO VAN GINKEL worked with Inzaghi in the training session at Milanello today while De Sciglio, Honda and De Jong worked apart.

Milan had 8 players on international duty and they’ve all returned after finishing their country obligations. Colombia’s Cristian Zapata and Pablo Armero, Netherland’s Nigel De Jong, Holland’s U21 Marco Van Ginkel, Japan’s Keisuke Honda and Italy’s Mattia De Sciglio, Andrea Poli and Stephan El Shaarawy were all in the training center on Wednesday afternoon.

It was in fact Van Ginkel’s first training session since joining Milan on loan (yesterday he was there only to do some tests) and as reported on acmilan.com, the 21-year-old midfielder “studied tactical moves” with his new coach Filippo Inzaghi.

The afternoon session started with some physical exercises. The squad was divided into four groups: Milan newcomers Giacomo Bonaventura and Fernando Torres, Zapata, Armero, Daniele Bonera, Ignazio Abate, M’Baye Niang, Adil Rami and Cristian Zaccardo carried out some exercises with blocks and also carried out exercises over high obstacles, running with weights and elastics. Meanwhile Alex da Costa, Michael Essien & Michelangelo Albertazzi did some running through poles.

Poli, who played a few minutes for Italy, El Shaarawy, who was at the Italian camp but wasn’t 100% due to a minor injury (he’ll be fit for Sunday) and Jeremy Menez did some running exercises over 30 meters while Sulley Muntari and Riccardo Saponara worked on strengthening leg muscles on the sand pit. Giampaolo Pazzini carried out some technical work.

Later in the session, the squad was divided into 2 groups. As stated on the Milan website: “On the raised pitch the players worked on tactics and offensive moves while on the lower pitch the players worked on defensive tactics. Eventually all the players were brought together on one pitch and concentrated their efforts on ball possession in defence and pressing.”

Honda and De Jong both played a lot with their national teams and today they didn’t work with the group, running around the central and raised pitches. Fullback De Sciglio, who made an assist yesterday, worked out in the gym all afternoon.