AS Monaco’s Denis Zakaria will miss the meeting with Bologna but expected an early return

Denis Zakaria (27) has become an indispensable element at AS Monaco. Dominant in his debut season after joining from Juventus, he was given the armband in the summer.

He was injured more than a week ago during the warm-up against OGC Nice and was withdrawn from the line-up a few minutes before kick-off, replaced by Soungoutou Magassa. That absence coincided with Monaco’s first defeat of the season. Zakaria also missed the weekend match against SCO Angers and to the same effect. The injury to the Swiss midfielder, who has been undefeated since the start of the season and in fact for six months, coincided with consecutive defeats.

They will be looking to bounce back and face Bologna in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, but they will do so again without Zakaria, who has been left out of the traveling group. A return, against RC Strasbourg Alsace, is touted by Adi Hütter. “We miss Denis,” the Monaco manager began.

“I definitely think he will come back to Strasbourg. I am convinced that without him we can play a good match against a good team in Bologna. We’ll see tomorrow how we can manage without him on the pitch.” he added.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle – reporting from Bologna