APPIANO GENTILE - After a two-day break, the Nerazzurri returned to the training ground on Tuesday afternoon to begin their preparations for Saturday's Serie A trip to Lazio.

Mancini's players kicked off with warm-up and abdominal exercises, continued with possession drills and aerobic exercises with and without the ball, and finished off with a practice game.

Cesar trained with his team-mates for the whole of today's session, as did Primavera trio Alberto Gerbo, Renè Khrin and Daniele Pedrelli.

Luis Figo (cycling, running in gym) Olivier Dacourt (running, muscle strengthening exercises) and Walter Samuel (gym session, physiotherapy) worked separately, while Esteban Cambiasso and Zlatan Ibrahimovic both underwent a series of fitness tests.

Nicolas Burdisso, Julio Cesar, Cristian Chivu, Julio Cruz, Luis Jimenez, Marco Materazzi, Pelé, Dejan Stankovic, David Suazo, Patrick Vieira and Javier Zanetti are away with their national teams.