Three players questionable for Udinese match, one out

After weeks of relatively fortunate injury news, things haven't been quite so rosy for Napoli of late. While it was hoped that some recent absentees might be back this weekend, it looks like some returns are a 50/50 chance at best, while another key player might join them on the sidelines.

Christian Maggio sat out the Coppa Italia match against Inter with a back injury, something he's struggled with at times over the last couple of years. He took a few hard shots in both the Genoa and Chievo matches, and occasionally looked like he was moving gingerly as the clock wore down in Verona. He's been limited in training this week and while it looks like he stands a fair chance of being available on Sunday, it's far from a sure thing.

The news isn't any better for Henrique for Giandomenico Mesto than we've been hearing of late. Both are still bothered by the mysterious muscular issues that have plagued them both for two weeks, with Mesto not training at all this week and Henrique only doing very limited work. The Brazilian is believed to be "on the road to recovery," but that's no guarantee that he can play this weekend. Mesto is almost certainly going to be out for a fourth straight match due to his lack of training.

That's not the worst news, though: David Lopez missed training today with a bad bout of the flu. It's certainly no guarantee that the sickness will keep the Spaniard out, but Rafa has been mostly conservative with flu-stricken players throughout his career, and anyone who's been laid low by a bad case of the flu knows how hard it is for you to do much of anything physically intensive for days afterwards, even if you're a highly-trained athlete. Especially for his hard-working play style, it's hard to imagine Lopez having much in the tank on Sunday.

Hopefully Napoli can plug these holes without missing much of a beat, but the squad is definitely looking a little thin for this match.