Riccardo Montolivo is ready to return to the Fiorentina squad and has thanked national team coach Marcello Lippi...
The attacking midfielder picked up an injury at the Olympics in Beijing, causing him to miss Fiorentina's Serie A opener with Juventus. However, he is now fit and raring to go for La Viola.
"Perhaps I underestimated the problem. However, I believe against Napoli I will be available," claimed the former Atalanta player.
Fiorentina had a very active transfer season and Montolivo believes that the new acquisitions will pay off sooner rather than later. The club brought in several new names to prepare to compete in both Champions League and Serie A including Alberto Gilardino, Felipe Melo, Luciano Zauri, Juan Vargas and Stefan Jovetic.
"The gap with the big teams has been reduced," he declared. "We rose as much if not more than them." The evidence certainly seems to support Montolivo's statement as Fiorentina drew Juventus 1-1 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on this past Sunday evening.
Finally, Montolivo spoke about his potential future with the Italian national team and on the news that Marcello Lippi claimed he would have called Montolivo up for the qualifiers against Cyprus and Georgia had it not been for his injury:
"I want to win the Azzurri jersey through my performances with Fiorentina. I am flattered, I thank Lippi for the kind words."