De Ketelaere forces Atalanta into last-minute change ahead of Cremonese – Football Italia

BERGAMO, ITALY – DECEMBER 28: Atalanta BC coach Raffaele Palladino issues instructions to his player Charles De Ketelaere during the Serie A match between Atalanta BC and FC Internazionale at New Balance Arena on December 28, 2025 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Charles De Ketelaere was initially named in the Atalanta starting line-up to take on Cremonese in Serie A on Monday evening, but the Belgium international was forced to drop out at the last minute. 

De Ketelaere drops out of Atalanta line-up at the last minute

De Ketelaere felt something in his knee during the warm-up ahead of Monday’s Serie A clash between Atalanta and Cremonese at the New Balance Arena and was unable to take his place in the starting line-up. That made for an opportunity for Lazar Samardzic to play instead. 

You can follow the action from Monday evening’s Serie A matches on the Football Italia Liveblog.

Raffaele Palladino already had injuries in mind when naming his starting line-up. Gianluca Scamacca started and scored in the 3-0 Coppa Italia victory over Juventus on Thursday, but reported a minor issue in training ahead of the Cremonese match and was also unavailable to start. 

Nikola Krstovic started at centre-forward instead and opened the scoring for La Dea within 13 minutes against Cremonese.