Napoli look to Atletico Madrid for Ghoulam replacement

Napoli are interested in signing Atletico Madrid full-back Sime Vrsaljko in the wake of Faouzi Ghoulam’s potential season-ending knee injury, claims Corriere dello Sport, via Football Italia.

Ghoulam ruptured knee ligaments in the first half of Napoli’s 4-2 home defeat to Manchester City on Wednesday night and will undergo surgery on Friday before potentially missing the rest of the season.

The Algeria international may have played his last game for Napoli as his current deal is due to expire at the end of the season and Maurizio Sarri’s side will sign a replacement in January.

Napoli are interested in signing Vrsaljko, who has endured a difficult time in Spain since swapping Sassuolo for Atletico in 2016.

Primarily a right-back, the Croatia international has failed to usurp Juanfran in the pecking order and Napoli are weighing up whether to hand him a route back to Italy in the New Year.

Ghoulam’s successor will have huge boots to fill for the second half of the season following the 26-year-old’s stunning start to the campaign.

In fact, only Roma left-back Aleksandar Kolarov (7.77) has garnered a higher WhoScored rating than Ghoulam (7.65) of all defenders in Serie A this season.

Meanwhile, Vrsaljko has only started 13 La Liga matches over the last two campaigns. In that time, Atletico have actually only lost once and score more goals per game (2.31) compared to when he has not started (1.57).