OMNISPORT 

Mauro Icardi is likely to be stripped of the Inter captaincy following comments made in his autobiography, according the vice-president Javier Zanetti.

Icardi's career at Inter was declared "finished" by the club's biggest group of ultras on Sunday after the forward wrote he had become a "hero" for standing up to one of their leaders.

The incident in question relates to a 3-1 Serie A defeat at Sassuolo last season when Icardi had his shirt thrown back at him by supporters, leading to a confrontation between the two.

And Zanetti confirmed the striker could be punished for his comments by losing the captaincy - as requested in the ultras' statement.

"Will we be taking action? Unfortunately yes. The fans are the most important element, they accompany us and we all should respect them," Zanetti told Mediaset Premium ahead of Inter's clash with Cagliari at San Siro.

"We cannot accept this behaviour from a person who works for our club. After this match we will talk things over and see what happens.

"Will we remove the captain's armband? We'll talk about it later, but this is an issue not just for Icardi, but for everyone who is part of the club. Behaviour must be in line with the values of the history of Inter.

"Nobody expected this outburst, as you know we are concentrated on other objectives, but Inter stands beyond any individual person and we really could've done without this incident ahead of an important match.

"Unfortunately social media can be used in a negative fashion and we must safeguard the club. Every individual who works for Inter must be very careful on social media: he can write anything on his private life, but cannot damage the history of this club."