Honest Ahanor has officially withdrawn from the Italy national team squad ahead of Friday evening’s Nations League clash away against France, but will now be available for Silvio Baldini and the Italy U21 squad ahead of a crucial European Championship qualifier for the Azzurrini.

Italy have two fixtures remaining of the extra-long September-October international break: Away against France at the Stade de France on Friday evening and at home against Turkey at the Dall’Ara in Bologna on Monday night.

Mancini originally called up a squad of 34 players for the September-October break, which was later cut down to 32 players after Nicolo Zaniolo and Giacomo Raspadori left the camp without being replaced.

However, teams are only allowed to name 23 players in their matchday squads for Nations League fixtures, which means that Mancini had to drop nine players for the France test.

Ahanor was among them, as well as Massimo Pessina, Diego Coppola, Daniele Ghilardi, Eddy Kouadio, Alessandro Romano, Rolando Mandragora, Nicolo Cambiaghi and Samuele Inacio.

Ahanor had been an unused substitute for Italy’s 2-0 loss against Belgium last week, but was not included in the matchday squad for the 4-1 victory away against Turkey on Monday either.

An update from the FIGC on Friday confirms that not only has Ahanor not travelled with the team for the France match, but that he will now drop out of the squad and join up with the Italy U21s instead.

Silvio Baldini’s Italy U21 squad beat Armenia 1-0 in their penultimate European Championship qualifier on Thursday evening, but they still remain in second place in their qualification group behind Poland, whom they will face in a decisive qualifier on Monday night.