Al Hilal team news centres on a final training session, which will decide whether Salem Al-Dawsari, Theo Hernandez and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic are ready to face Al-Ittihad.
Simone Inzaghi gave the update in his Friday 9th October news conference. The head coach said his team understood the importance of the Saudi Roshn League match and were ready for the challenge, but left the three players’ participation subject to a final assessment.
Image credit: Simone Inzaghi in a file photo from his time at Inter, 2023. Photo: Werner100359, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
Al Hilal team news: three final checks
The club’s official report of Inzaghi’s news conference says the last training session will determine the readiness of Salem, Hernandez and Savic before a decision is made on their involvement.
That means none of the three has been confirmed available by this update. A fitness assessment is still to come, and readiness for the match is not the same as a guaranteed starting place.
On captain Salem, Inzaghi said: “I am very happy with the hard work that Salem is doing, and we will evaluate his readiness during the final training, before making the final decision regarding his participation in the match.”
Inzaghi says Al Hilal are ready for Ittihad
The fixture is part of the league’s eighth round. Inzaghi said the return of the international players had helped preparations.
“We understand the importance of the match, and we are ready for it, especially after the return of our international players from their participations with their national teams,” he said.
The positive message about the team should not be used to erase the individual fitness questions. Both statements were part of the same news conference: Al Hilal are preparing for the match, while the trio’s involvement remains undecided.
Managing a busy October
Inzaghi also discussed the demands of overlapping domestic and international commitments. The club’s report says his staff will keep assessing players through training and matches as they decide how to use the squad.
He praised Nasser Al-Dawsari’s performances with Saudi Arabia and expressed satisfaction with Mohammed Al-Owais’s international form. Inzaghi also congratulated the national team on winning the Arabian Gulf Cup.
The new update follows our report on Ali Lajami’s partial return to training. That earlier report covers a separate player’s progress and should not be treated as a final line-up for Al-Ittihad.
For supporters, the next piece of Al Hilal team news will be the outcome of the final checks and the matchday squad. Friday’s news conference gives the manager’s current position without promising a return that he has not yet confirmed.
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