Chelsea's Tiemoue Bakayoko during his time at AC Milan. (imago Images)
AC Milan have frozen out Tiemoue Bakayoko from their squad to avoid paying Chelsea £12 million. Both the sides are set to clash with each other for their Champions League game later tonight.
Standard Sports journalist Nizaar Kinsella (h/t Express) has tweeted that the loan deal involving Bakayoko dictates that if the midfielder plays another league game, the Rossoneri would have to buy him permanently for £12 million.
Milan are keen to avoid that from happening. And as such, the 28-year-old midfielder has been frozen out of the squad by Stefano Pioli this season.
The Blues loanee has not played a single game for the Italian champions this season. He was also not included in the Champions League squad for both their previous games and is set to miss out the game against his parent club too.
Bakayoko joined the Serie A side last summer on a two-year loan deal. While the 28-year-old made 18 appearances in all competitions last season, the Frenchman is yet to play a single minute this season.
A defensive midfielder by trade, the player joined the Blues back in 2017 for £40 million from AS Monaco. The move did not work out at all, with the midfielder last playing for the west London club back in 2017/18.
Since then the player has been out on loan spells to different clubs every year. The 28-year-old has played for Monaco, SSC Napoli, AC Milan during all these years since joining the Blues.
With the midfield department currently full at the west London club, the midfielder would struggle for game time here too. It remains to be seen if the two clubs can figure something out for the player.
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