Italy will be without injured captain Sergio Parisse for their crucial Rugby World Cup clash with Romania, replaced by Alessandro Zanni.

Parisse recovered from a haematoma in his calf to face Ireland last weekend - his only appearance for Jacques Brunel's side at this year's tournament.

And, having failed to shake off the after-effects of the problem, Parisse concedes he was never going to be able to take part in a match that will decide which of the nations qualifies automatically for the 2019 World Cup.

"I wasn't really ready to start the match against Ireland and it was physically hard, even those 65 minutes, and afterwards my calf hurt a lot," said Parisse. "I really wanted to do my best against Ireland after all the recovery work I did with Stade Francais in Paris, but at the end I was destroyed.

"I wasn't able to give my all in training and I would only be at about 55 per cent for a match which you need to be near 100 per cent for."

Brunel has only made one other change from the side beaten by Ireland, with Tommaso Benvenuti coming in at inside centre for Gonzalo Garcia.

Romania also make two alterations to their side ahead of the game - suspended captain Mihai Macovei is replaced at number eight by Daniel Carpo, while scrum-half Valentin Calafeteanu comes in for the injured Florin Surugiu.

A tweet from the official Romania Rugby Union account originally listed Macovei in their starting XV, confirming they would appeal his suspension, but that was subsequently deleted and the forward does not make the squad.

Catalin Fercu retains his place, though, the full-back needing just one try to become Romania's outright record try scorer.

Italy team: Luke McLean, Leonardo Sarto, Michele Campagnaro, Tommaso Benvenuti, Giovanbattista Venditti, Tommaso Allan, Edoardo Gori; Matias Aguero, Andrea Manici, Lorenzo Cittadini, Quintin Geldenhuys, Josh Furno, Francesco Minto, Simone Favaro, Alessandro Zanni

Replacements: Davide Giazzon, Alberto De Marchi, Dario Chistolini, Valerio Bernabo, Samuela Vunisa, Guglielmo Palazzani, Carlo Canna, Enrico Bacchin

Romania team: Catalin Fercu, Madalin Lemnaru, Paula Kinikinilau, Florin Vlaicu, Ionut Botezatu, Michael Wiringi, Valentin Calafeteanu; Mihaita Lazar, Otar Turashvili, Paulica Ion, Valentin Poparlan, Johannes van Heerden, Valentin Ursache, Viorel Lucaci, Daniel Carpo.

Replacements: Andrei Radoi, Andrei Ursache, Horatiu Pungea, Marius Antonescu, Stelian Burcea, Tudorel Bratu, Adrian Apostol, Csaba Gal.