Giuseppe Rossi, Antonio Cassano, Ciro Immobile and Mattia Destro are in Italy’s 30-man provisional World Cup squad.

Cesare Prandelli will whittle the list down to the final 23 for the tournament in Brazil by June 6.

Giuseppe Rossi, Antonio Cassano, Ciro Immobile and Mattia Destro are in Italy’s 30-man provisional World Cup squad.

Cesare Prandelli will whittle the list down to the final 23 for the tournament in Brazil by June 6.

These players are expected at the Coverciano training ground on Monday and play a friendly against the Republic of Ireland at Craven Cottage on Saturday May 31.

Excluded from the preliminary squad are the likes of Alberto Gilardino, Emanuele Giaccherini, Domenico Criscito, Luca Toni and Simone Scuffet.

There had been considerable doubts on whether Rossi would be called up after a knee ligament injury kept him out of action for five months.

However, he made his comeback for Fiorentina over the last couple of weeks and even scored a Serie A goal.

Parma forward Cassano also gets an Azzurri recall for the first time since Euro 2012 was completed, as his performances at the Stadio Tardini did enough to earn another chance.

Torino hitman Immobile burst into the running with a remarkable 2014 and is current Capocannoniere with 22 Serie A goals.

This is a blow for the official Genoa Twitter account, who tweeted their ‘congratulations’ to Gilardino and Perin for receiving the World Cup call, but only the goalkeeper was in the eventual group of 30.

Surprise inclusions are Ignazio Abate, Christian Maggio – who made his comeback last week after three months out with a collapsed lung – and Verona’s Brazilian-born Romulo.

Parma goalkeeper Antonio Mirante is also included as an extra in the training sessions in case of injury.

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Mattia Perin (Genoa), Salvatore Sirigu (Paris Saint Germain), *Antonio Mirante (Parma);

Defenders: Ignazio Abate (Milan), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Matteo Darmian (Torino), Mattia De Sciglio (Milan), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Gabriel Paletta (Parma), Manuel Pasqual (Fiorentina), Andrea Ranocchia (Inter);

Midfielders: Alberto Aquilani (Fiorentina), Antonio Candreva (Lazio), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Milan), Thiago Motta (Paris Saint Germain), Marco Parolo (Parma), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus), Romulo (Verona), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain);

Forwards: Mario Balotelli (Milan), Antonio Cassano (Parma), Alessio Cerci (Torino), Mattia Destro (Roma), Ciro Immobile (Torino), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli), Giuseppe Rossi (Fiorentina)

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