Sergio Parisse left out of Italy squad for summer tour

Italy coach Conor O'Shea has announced captain Sergio Parisse is not in his 31-man squad for this summer's tour against Scotland, Fiji and Australia.

The Irish coach said he wanted to give Parisse and hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini, flanker Simone Favaro and prop Lorenzo Cittadini time to recover from the 2016-17 season before the November internationals.

Prop Simone Ferrari and winger Leonardo Sarto return to the squad following injuries, which prevented them from playing in the Six Nations this year which saw the Azzurri finish bottom of the table.

O'Shea has named four uncapped players in his squad.

He said: "The goal for this group of players joining the tour is to seize the opportunities that we certainly have.

"Once we do this and once we play with the intensity and concentration that we want, we will become the team that we want to be and that all our supporters expect."

Forwards: Pietro Ceccarelli (Zebre Rugby), Simone Ferrari (Benetton Treviso), Andrea Lovotti (Zebre Rugby), Sami Panico (Patar Calvisano), Tiziano Pasquali (Benetton Treviso), Luca Bigi (Benetton Treviso), Ornel Gega (Benetton Treviso), Luhandre Luus (Patar Calvisano), George Fabio Biagi (Zebre Rugby), Dean Budd (Benetton Treviso), Marco Fuser (Benetton Treviso), Federico Ruzza (Zebre Rugby), Andries Van Schalkwyk (Zebre Rugby), Robert Julian Barbieri (Benetton Treviso), Maxime Mbanda' (Zebre Rugby), Francesco Minto (Benetton Treviso), Abraham Jurgen Steyn (Benetton Treviso)

Backs: Edoardo Gori (Benetton Treviso), Tito Tebaldi (Benetton Treviso), Marcello Violi (Zebre Rugby), Tommaso Allan (Benetton Treviso), Carlo Canna (Zebre Rugby), Tommaso Benvenuti (Benetton Treviso), Tommaso Boni (Zebre Rugby), Michele Campagnaro (Exeter Chiefs), Giulio Bisegni (Zebre Rugby), Angelo Esposito (Benetton Treviso), Leonardo Sarto (Glasgow Warriors), Giovanbattista Venditti (Zebre Rugby), Edoardo Padovani (Zebre Rugby), Luca Sperandio (Benetton Treviso)