Marco Verratti has pleaded with Italy's distraught fanbase to not target the national team's younger players following their shocking failure to qualify for the World Cup.
The Paris Saint-Germain star played the full 90 minutes on Thursday as the Azzurri crashed to a shock 1-0 stoppage time defeat by North Macedonia in Palermo, knocking them out of the finals at the play-off semi-final stage.
While North Macedonia will now play Portugal for a place in Qatar this winter, Italy will now contest a friendly with fellow semi-finalist losers Turkey in Konya.
With fans and media raging following a second successive failure to qualify for the finals, Verratti has been released from international duty along with other senior stars including Jorginho, Ciro Immobile, Lorenzo Insigne, Domenico Berardi and Gianluca Mancini.
But the 29-year-old has urged supporters not to let out their frustrations on Italy's younger stars set to feature in the friendly in Turkey on Tuesday, posting a message on Instagram ahead of the meeting.
'When you win, it's easy to thank everyone,' wrote Verratti on Instagram.
I don't think the best way to deal with this is to insult everyone, because each of us tried to give our all (unfortunately it wasn't enough).
'Above all please leave the younger players alone (if you really want to, insult us 'older' guys, because sometimes you forget we are just people like you, normal folks, and that we too feel the biggest emotions in the smallest things).'
Italy's failure to qualify comes less than a year after defeating England at Wembley to become European champions, and the PSG star has urged the nation to fight back.
'I want to do it today after an elimination that will deny us the most wonderful and exciting competition for us players, but above all for all the Italian fans around the world,' he also added.'
'I want to thank everyone, staff, players and all those who work with passion and enthusiasm around the Nazionale.
'Unfortunately, in life and in football, it doesn't always go the way your expectations, objectives and dreams had planned it.
'The disappointment is immense, but we already showed that with work, passion and heart, anything is possible. So in life or in football, just like after a great victory last summer or a huge defeat, we must continue fighting.
'Football is our passion and I am sure we'll continue to give our all to earn more satisfying moments together.'