Inside unusual top flight clash starting in 17th minute with suspended players allowed to play and new signings banned

A TOP FLIGHT European football game with an odd set of rules left one side with only 14 players available for selection. The Serie A clash between Fiorentina and Inter Milan was rescheduled to February 6 after it was abandoned in December. The original game on December 1 was postponed after 22-year-old Edoardo Bove collapsed on the pitch following a cardiac arrest, with the game being abandoned in the 17th minute.

Fiorentina star Bove was nursed back to health in hospital before breaking his silence in an emotional social media post. But while he continues his recovery on the sidelines, Fiorentina have been left shorthanded in playing the remainder of the fixture at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Rules for the game, which was 0-0 before it was abandoned, said it would resume from the 17th minute. The rules forbid players who were not registered at the time of the original game from playing, while stars who were banned or subbed off by the time of the suspension also cannot play.

It means Inter's Denzel Dumfries and Fiorentina's Pietro Comuzzo - who both need to serve one-game bans after picking up yellow cards last weekend - are allowed to play tonight. Both stars were named in their club's respective starting XIs for the game, but neither will be able to play in the club's next fixture on February 10, ironically when they play out the reverse fixture at the San Siro. The registration rules mean new signings were not able to be included in the matchday squad.

And it meant Fiorentina were unable to field six new signings; Michael Folorunsho, Pablo Marì, Ched Ndour, Nicolò Fagioli and Nicolò Zaniolo, who all joined the club in the January transfer window. That snag left Fiorentina, where ex-Manchester United star David De Gea plays, with just 14 senior players available for selection. Manager Raffaele Palladino explained in his pre-match press conference: "As you know, we can't play the new players for Thursday, there will be very few of us.

"14, to be precise, with two players that we are trying to recover. "I'm sure that those few will play a great game. Given the moment, we need to be even more of a team and get 100 per cent out of every single player. We will try to make things difficult for Inter. "We will add some U-19 players who have already trained with us in recent days.". By contrast, Inter are only forbidden to use one player, January signing Nicola Zalewski.

Inter currently sit three points off of top club Napoli in the league table, while Fiorentina sit down in sixth, three points outside of the top four. Bove, who was in attendance at the game, underwent surgery to install an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) - identical to Christian Eriksen - following the cardiac arrest. However, ICDs are not permitted in Serie A, meaning Bove is not eligible to play for the club.