Italian International: "I Can't Watch the World Cup Matches, It Hurts Me"

Italian international Gianluca Mancini has admitted he can't bring himself to watch the World Cup, describing his nation's third consecutive absence from the tournament as a pain too profound to confront, even as a spectator. The AS Roma center-back was candid in an interview with Sky Sport about how deeply the qualification failure has affected him.

“I can speak as a footballer who didn’t qualify for the World Cup,” Mancini stated. “It hurts me. I don’t watch the matches, I can’t. I watch the highlights, but not the full games. It hurts not to be there,” he continued. “If we haven’t qualified three times, it’s not just a problem for young players, youth sectors, and coaches. It’s bigger than that. We hope to resolve these issues in the coming years,” Gianluca Mancini added.