Leonardo Bonucci apologises for state of Italy changing room with cigarette butts found

Leonardo Bonucci has apologised for the state in which the Italian national team left the dressing room in the aftermath of their damaging World Cup play-off defeat to North Macedonia.

The European Champions succumbed to a shock 1-0 loss on Thursday as Aleksandar Trajkovski's stoppage-time winner left the Azzurri's dreams of playing in this year's Qatar showpiece in tatters. The result means Roberto Mancini 's men will miss out on a second successive World Cup.

Italy have been widely criticised for their failure in the days since and things have now gone from bad to worse. Mancini's side have been further condemned after leaked photos revealed the state in which his team left their Palermo dressing room.

Pictures revealed cigarette butts, plastic bottles, used tissues and food waste scattered around the changing facilities following Italy's heartbreaking defeat. In response to the backlash following his team's lack of respect, Juventus centre-back Bonucci has since issued an apology.

As reported by Football Italia, Bonucci declared: "It was a big mistake. Next time, we'll pay more attention.

"We were very disappointed and we didn't think that these details make the difference sometimes. We'll pay more attention in the next matches, we apologise."

Bonucci's comments were further echoed by Italy's communication chief Paolo Corbi, who also issued an apology, while clarifying that the images weren't a true reflection of the dressing room's condition. He said: "It's an aspect that we underestimated and we've already apologised to Palermo Calcio.

"We had to catch the flight for Coverciano and there was a huge disappointment even if, we must say, the state of the dressing room when we left was not exactly the one shown