Francesco Totti has been left out of Italy's preliminary 30-man FIFA World Cup squad by coach Marcello Lippi.
The Roma forward retired from the national team after helping Italy win the World Cup in Germany four years ago but there had been speculation that the 33-year-old could return.
Club team-mate Luca Toni, one of the Azzurri's main strikers in 2006 and at UEFA Euro 2008, has also been overlooked.
Villarreal's Giuseppe Rossi has been selected as a seventh striker at the expense of Juventus defender Nicola Legrottaglie.
Legrottaglie was not included, despite taking part in a three-day pre-tournament get-together in Rome last week.
Former Parma striker Rossi is the only player based outside of Italy to be selected in the Azzurri squad.
Otherwise, there were no big surprises in Lippi's squad list, which will be cut down to 23 by 1 June.
Under FIFA regulations, Lippi is permitted to bring players into his 23-man squad who were not included in the preliminary party. But that would be an unusual move, meaning the final party he takes to this summer's finals in South Africa is likely to come from the one he has already named.
To get accustomed to the altitude in South Africa, Italy will hold their pre-tournament training camp in the northern Sestriere mountains in Turin, rather than at their traditional base of Coverciano in Florence, starting on 23 May and concluding on 5 June.
Lippi is scheduled to announce the names who will leave for that training camp at a press conference in Rome on 18 May.
Italy will face Mexico on 3 June in Brussels and Switzerland two days later in Geneva as part of the build-up to the tournament.
The final squad will travel to South Africa on 8 June. They will train at Southdowns College in Irene - between Johannesburg and Pretoria - and stay at the nearby Leriba Lodge hotel in Centurion for the duration of the tournament.
The World champions begin the defence of their title in Group F against Paraguay in Cape Town on 14 June, then play New Zealand in Nelspruit on 20 June and Slovakia in Johannesburg on 24 June.
Italy preliminary squad
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli), Federico Marchetti (Cagliari), Salvatore Sirigu (Palermo).
Defenders: Salvatore Bocchetti (Genoa), Leonardo Bonucci (Bari), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Mattia Cassani (Palermo), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Domenico Criscito (Genoa), Fabio Grosso (Juventus), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Gianluca Zambrotta (Milan).
Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Antonio Candreva (Juventus), Andrea Cossu (Cagliari), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Simone Pepe (Udinese), Andrea Pirlo (Milan).
Forwards: Marco Borriello (Milan), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria), Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal).
Source: FIGC
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