Runaway Serie A leaders Napoli will be without star striker Victor Osimhen due to a groin injury when they host last season’s champions AC Milan tomorrow, his club yesterday.
The 24-year-old Nigerian international’s 21 goals in Serie A have propelled Napoli to the verge of their third Serie A title but first since the late Diego Maradona inspired them to the 1990 Scudetto. However, he will have to sit out of tomorrow’s game after returning from international duty with the club saying: “He complained of a pain in his groin and medical tests revealed the injury.”
His status will be reviewed next week, the club added. Napoli hold a 19-point lead over closest pursuers Lazio with 11 matches remaining. Milan have mounted a lacklustre title defence and lie fourth, 23 points adrift of Napoli.
Naples – Southern Italy’s biggest city – is counting down the days until Napoli can officially say they are champions for the first time since 1990. Such is size of their advantage with 11 games to go long-suffering Napoli supporters have let go of their traditionally superstitious ways and already bedecked town in blue and white in anticipation of near-certain victory for their beloved team.
The number three in honour of what will be Napoli’s third league title can been seen on flags and banners and painted in murals around the city. Diego Maradona said a Scudetto for Napoli “is worth 10 for Juventus” after guiding them to their first in 1987 and the late Argentine icon has been joined in the walls of Naples by the stars of this year’s title charge.
Depictions of Osimhen and wing wizard Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are all over town, most notably in the central Forcella district where at the foot of a mural of the two attackers is a toilet, painted in Juventus’ colours of black and white.
Osimhen’s 25 goals in Serie A and the Champions League have given the Nigeria striker hero status in Naples.
One coffee bar a short walk from the anti-Juve toilet is offering an “Osimhen coffee”, served in a tall glass with sugar and cacao on the edges and artisanal chocolate at the bottom, for the princely sum of three euros – three times the price of an average espresso coffee.
A pastry shop has made a dessert in his honour, a chocolate tart with a mask like Osimhen’s and crumble designed to look like his dyed blonde hair.
It’s Juve who draw most ire from Napoli fans even though it was it was the Milan clubs who denied their team from winning more than the two titles claimed during Maradona’s wild time in Naples. Juve, who host Verona on Saturday, might yet postpone Napoli’s coronation if their 15-point punishment for alleged transfer trickery is overturned next month and they bounce up from seventh to second above Lazio.

Fixtures (all times GMT)
Today: Cremonese v Atalanta (1300), Inter Milan v Fiorentina (1600), Juventus v Verona (1845)
Tomorrow: Bologna v Udinese (1030), Spezia v Salernitana, Monza v Lazio (both 1300), Roma v Sampdoria (1600), Napoli v AC Milan (1945)
Monday: Empoli v Lecce (1630), Sassuolo v Torino (1845)