£38m Aston Villa star has played his last game for the club after injury update

Aston Villa star Nicolo Zaniolo will miss EURO 2024 with Italy, Luciano Spalletti has confirmed.

The Azzurri are defending their crown at the European Championship's after beating England at Wembley back in July 2021. It is their first major tournament since then after failing to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Italy will have to do without Zaniolo however after he was ruled out of the tournament through injury. Corriere dello Sport reported on Tuesday that the 24-year-old has suffered a microfracture in his foot which will sideline him. As a result, Zaniolo will miss the final day fixture with Crystal Palace which thankfully doesn't have anything riding on it after Spurs lost to Man City on Tuesday which confirmed Villa's participation in the Champions League.

“Yes, I had spoken to him before," Spalletti said to TuttoMercatoWeb on Wednesday (May 15).

"It’s very hard for him to come back, in fact I would exclude the possibility.”

The Italian has most recently been nursing an injury which forced him to miss a couple of games and he made a 14-minute return against Liverpool on Monday but had to be replaced. Jhon Duran replaced him and ended up scoring a brace in a 3-3 draw.

It is the second consecutive Euros that Zaniolo has missed after suffering with an anterior cruciate ligament injury when EURO 2020 came about. Zaniolo has made 19 appearances for the Italian national team, scoring two goals.

The forward will have his club career to think about in the summer as his loan at Aston Villa comes to an end. It cost £4.2m to bring him on loan from Galatasaray and should they wish to secure his services on a permanent basis it will cost £38m.

Zaniolo has played 39 games for Villa across four competitions this season. He's scored three goals but has never been on the winning side when he has been on the score sheet, drawing 1-1 on every occasion