AC Milan leave USA defender Sergino Dest OFF the roster for the Champions League knockout stage

AC Milan will be without American right-back Sergiño Dest in their next UEFA Champions League round of 16 matches against Tottenham Hotspur.

The USA international has been fighting for playing time since moving to Milan on loan from Barcelona this summer.

Dest started the club’s 3-0 loss to Chelsea in the group stage and has 98 minutes of playing time in three other games.

It has been a struggle for Dest trying to disrupt the starting job that club captain Davide Calabria has locked down at right-back.

That includes competition in Serie A, where Dest has plenty of second-half substitute appearances but just two starts.

Sergiño Dest was left out of AC Milan’s Champions League list ahead of the round of 16

In his place is 21-year-old central defender Malick Thiaw, who also arrived earlier this year.

Dest shone for the USMNT at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, starting every game as the Americans made it out of the group stage before falling to the Netherlands.

In his place, central defender Malick Thiaw works his way up the list, with the 21-year-old seen as more versatile than Dest.

Elsewhere in the squad, perennial wonder Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been left out of the squad as the 41-year-old continues to recover from a knee procedure this summer.

fans of I Rossoneri he hopes the club can get past the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

Since then, the club has appeared in three Champions League tournaments. They lost to Barcelona in the 2012-13 round of 16 and Atlético de Madrid on the same stage the following season. They failed to make it out of the group stage last season.

Apart from Dest, Zlatan Ibrahimovic will not be in the squad while he recovers from surgery.