Inter Confirm 'Cordial Meeting' with Mauro Icardi, Wanda Nara Amid Rift Rumours

Inter Milan confirmed a "cordial meeting" was held between star forward Mauro Icardi, his wife/agent Wanda Nara and the club's chief executive Giuseppe Marotta in an attempt to solve the ongoing saga surrounding the striker.

Icardi has not played for Inter since it was confirmed the club had taken the captaincy from him. While there has been some talk regarding a knee problem, the Serie A side said on their official website there was no major injury issue recently.

The club appeared to suggest a positive step had been made on Wednesday, though, with the three parties getting together in a bid to move forward:

Per Goal, there has been tension between Icardi and Inter since the decision was made to give the armband to Samir Handanovic.

During his time on the sidelines, the Inter man has sent out a number of social media posts of a cryptic nature. In one Instagram post, he called for "respect" from the San Siro outfit. As Goal noted, he previously said that "it's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt."

The issues between the club and player appear to stem from the fact that Icardi has not signed a new contract.

Speaking about the Argentina international earlier this month, Marotta said there was "no split" between Inter and Icardi, noting that "we never talked about a sale abroad or anything else," per Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia).

Eurosport's Siavoush Fallahi said the manner in which Icardi has reacted to having the captaincy taken from him appears to have surprised the club:

While Inter's results were initially good following the change of captaincy, they've picked up just one point in their last two games.

Overall, the team will suffer without Icardi. Not only was he a leader on the field, but he has long been one of the most dependable goalscorers in Serie A, able to take all different types of opportunities inside the penalty area.

Squawka Football summed up just how important the No. 9 has been for the Nerazzurri:

Inter are in a battle to finish in the top four in Italy—they were bumped down to fourth spot courtesy of local rivals AC Milan at the weekend—and they're also in the last-16 of the UEFA Europa League.