Rafael Leao will be among the substitutes against Slovan Bratislava tonight and the AC Milan star is the only ‘big one’ missing.

There have been several occasions this season where things have looked strange for Milan. From the cooling break incident to the general direction of the club. The most intriguing situation, however, was probably Paulo Fonseca’s handling of Leao.

The Portuguese winger has been sidelined for more time than any other star at the club and is expected to be on the bench again for tonight’s game against Slovan Bratislava, prompting Gazzetta dello Sport to look into the situation.

As the newspaper writes, they existed Lecture by Fonseca on rotationand realistically, Leao is the only player to have been transferred without explanation – which has happened several times this season. A case made even more interesting by the Portuguese’s refusal to regularly rotate any of the other stars.

You talked about rotation. Can this also affect a player like Leao? Or do you think Leao has to play now?

“I honestly don’t know, we’ll see tomorrow. Rafa is an important player in our team, he is in really good shape. But I trust everyone: if Rafa doesn’t play, then someone else will. We really want to win here: it’s not about him playing against a team that doesn’t win, but about him playing against a team that wins. There is a possibility that Leao will not be there and that he will be there. Abraham will play.”

Leao wasn’t at his best against Juventus, but the same could be said for a handful of his other teammates, a selection of the other stars.

The decision comes at a time when the club needs to be a unit and although it suffered a blow in the game against the Bianconeri, he should have recovered.