Future Chelsea signing Honest Ahanor has left Italy’s senior squad to join the Under-21s ahead of Friday evening’s Nations League clash against France.

Chelsea announced a pre-agreement with Serie A side Atalanta for Ahanor earlier this summer. The deal, reportedly worth £40 million, will see the young defender officially join Chelsea in 2027.

As it stands, Ahanor remains an Atalanta player who is on a season-long loan at Crystal Palace.

Italy head coach Roberto Mancini decided to call up several promising young talents for his surprisingly big 32-man squad for the September-October international break, including Ahanor.

However, the size of the squad means the former Manchester City boss has had to make tough decisions, leaving out nine players for each game, since teams are allowed only 23 players in their matchday squads for Nations League fixtures.

Ahanor made the bench in Italy’s 2-0 defeat to Belgium last week but did not play. Unfortunately, he was among the players left out of Italy’s 4-1 win over Turkey earlier this week.

Having not travelled with the national team to France for Friday evening’s Nations League fixture, Ahanor has withdrawn from the senior squad to join the Under-21s, as confirmed by the Italian football governing body FIGC.

“Honest Ahanor is leaving the senior national team’s training camp to join the Under-21 squad in the coming hours,” the FIGC statement reads.

“The Under-21s returned overnight to the Olympic Training Centre in Tirrenia following yesterday’s victory over Armenia and are set to face Poland in Pescara on Monday in a decisive match for qualification to the final stage of the European Under-21 Championship.”

It is worth noting that Ahanor is still 18, so he will have plenty of time to establish himself in the national team in the future.

He already made his senior debut for Italy and has two caps from the two friendlies played in June.

However, this means he has yet to play for Italy in official matches and is still eligible to switch allegiance to Nigeria if he wishes to.

For now, he will have to shift his focus to the UEFA European Under-21s championship qualifier against Poland on Monday, with a direct qualification to the tournament at stake.

Poland Under-21s are leading Group E, three points ahead of Italy in second place. Italy must win and top the group if they want to avoid play-offs in November.

This is the only remaining fixture for Italy Under-21s, after which Ahanor will head back to Crystal Palace for hopefully more Premier League action.

He has featured three times for the Eagles under Pierre Sage, one appearance each in the Premier League, Europa League, and Carabao Cup.

He is a left-footed defender who primarily plays as a centre-back, but is also capable of playing as a left-back.