Italy coach Carlo Recalcati has revealed he agonised over whether to leave veteran playmaker Gianmarco Pozzecco out of his European Championships squad.

Recalcati says he didn’t sleep a wink the night before making his controversial decision to drop the 30-year-old guard from the group which will contest the European Championships in Sweden in September.

Lottomatica Roma star Pozzecco had dreamed of earning a call-up to the party for Sweden after being invited to the Azzurri training base in Varese near Milan.

"I called Gianmarco up to the training camp because I hoped that his qualities would fit in with the overall structure of the team," Recalcati told Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"He has unique qualities but I did not feel that these were in line with what we are trying to create here.

"Pozzecco must be given the chance to enjoy himself on the court and to display his qualities, otherwise there is no point him being in the team."

Recalcati has never been convinced by Pozzecco’s ability to perform at international level, selecting him in just four of the 35 games he has been in charge of the national team.

In those four games during the last round of qualifying, he averaged almost 15 points and 4.5 assists.

"He was not happy about being left out, but that is normal," he claimed.

"I imagine he feels exactly the same as I did when I was excluded from the squad for the 1972 Olympics."