Lautaro Martinez out for several weeks: Inter face the Milan derby without their striker

On Tuesday night at San Siro, Lautaro Martinez scored twice against Club Brugge, and Inter still lost this second league-phase game 4-3. The next day, the club announced the injury: a problem in the flexors of his left thigh (“risentimento ai flessori della coscia sinistra”, the club’s official statement read).

La Gazzetta dello Sport calls it a muscle lesion and counts about six weeks out, targeting a return on 22 November at Atalanta. Foot Mercato and So Foot stay at “several weeks”, at least until the November international break. No official timeline from the club: Chivu plans his October without his striker.

Inter won without him, except in the games that decide

Last season, Inter played 14 matches without Lautaro: 8 wins, 4 draws, 2 defeats. A record that holds up, with two failures landing exactly where they cost most: the Champions League playoff lost to Bodo/Glimt and the Milan derby of early March, settled by an Estupinan goal.

Seven games to hold, one of them the derby

The fixture list could hardly be worse timed: Bologna on Saturday in Serie A, Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday in the Champions League, then Feyenoord, again in Europe, the derby against Milan at the end of October, Fiorentina, Venezia and Como. La Gazzetta counts seven games, with Stuttgart still in doubt.

For anyone reading Inter’s odds over the coming weeks, that record is the baseline: eight wins in fourteen games without Lautaro last season, with the defeats concentrated in the big ones. The calendar now lines up several of those, derby included.