Italy coach Marcello Lippi is set to ring the changes for Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Georgia after the world champions scraped through their opener against unfancied Cyprus at the weekend.
Poor form is not the only problem for the Italian coach, who lost defenders Alessandro Gamberini and Fabio Grosso to injury in Saturday's 2-1 win, and Gennaro Gattuso, who hurt his wrist in training on Sunday.
The 2006 World Cup-winning coach has drafted Palermo's Antonio Nocerino into the squad for the AC Milan midfielder, who came on as a substitute in the Group Eight opener.
With many players not fully match fit after only one weekend of Serie A action, in addition to covering for the absentees, Lippi also needs to inject energy into a side that was unable to cope with the Cypriots' pace for long spells.
"The problems in Cyprus stemmed from our fitness. We're not 100 percent and playing a match every three days is not the best thing for us," the 60-year-old told reporters. "Changes are needed."
Andrea Dossena and Nicola Legrottaglie are favourites to take the places of the injured defenders, after Andrea Barzagli and Marco Cassetti gave nervous performances as substitutes on Saturday.
AS Roma's Alberto Aquilani is tipped to come into the midfield for Andrea Pirlo, who looked tired in Cyprus, while striker Luca Toni may lose his place as he was ineffective before being brought off at halftime.
ADDITIONAL MOTIVATION
Alessandro Del Piero, who was rested on Saturday after straining a leg muscle last week, and his Juventus team mate Vincenzo Iaquinta will be eyeing his place in attack.
One player who looks sure to start is in-form forward Antonio Di Natale, whose goals saved Italy's blushes on Saturday a week after he scored a double for Udinese in their Serie A win over Palermo.
The striker will have the additional motivation of playing at his home ground in the northern Italian city of Udine.
Georgia are aiming to bounce back from their 2-1 defeat by Ireland, a match played at the neutral venue of Mainz in Germany because of the recent conflict with Russia.
Coach Hector Cuper said the situation at home was affecting his team, but he added that they should not be written off yet.
"The war is in my lads' heads," the Argentine coach was quoted as saying by La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"My national team suffers with all the Georgian people. It's not easy to play football in this atmosphere.
"We lost against Ireland, it's true, but my side showed they have an identity.
"We are not beaten before kick-off. We certainly won't give up, on the contrary, I want to return from Udine with a positive result."
Possible teams:
Italy: Gianluigi Buffon; Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro, Nicola Legrottaglie, Andrea Dossena; Mauro Camoranesi, Daniele De Rossi, Alberto Aquilani; Vincenzo Iaquinta, Alberto Gilardino, Antonio Di Natale.
Georgia: George Loria; Ucha Lobjanidze, Zurab Khizanishvili, Kakha Kaladze, George Shashiashvili; Levan Kobiashvili, David Odikadze, Zurab Menteshashvili, Levan Kenia; Aleksandr Iashvili, Levan Mchedlidze.