Pushing for Italy: Giuseppe Rossi scores in second game back from injury

Giuseppe Rossi scored in his second game back from injury and still maintains hope of cracking Italy's World Cup roster. (Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

Giuseppe Rossi scored in his second game back from injury and still maintains hope of cracking Italy's World Cup roster. (Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

Giuseppe Rossi's comeback from another substantial knee injury may have come just in time for him to remain in strong contention for Italy's World Cup roster.

In his second game back from injury, the New Jersey-born Rossi scored in Fiorentina's 4-3 loss to relegation-threatened Sassuolo Tuesday. Rossi, who participated in a fitness test organized by Azzurri manager Cesare Prandelli last month, had come off the bench in Saturday's Coppa Italia final for his first action since January, when he suffered a knee injury against Livorno. He had been thriving in his first extended action off of two ACL tears, leading Serie A in scoring at the time of the injury. 

For his goal Tuesday, he worked a nifty combination with Matias Fernandez and Borja Valero and was played into the box, where he calmly finished for his 15th of the league campaign and his first since he scored on Sassuolo on Dec. 22, 2013. That total is still good for fifth-most (tied with three others) in the league -- one ahead of Mario Balotelli and fourth among Italians behind Torino's Ciro Immobile (21), Verona's Luca Toni (19) and Sassuolo 19-year-old Domenico Berardi (16), who notched a hat trick in Tuesday's win. The 27-year-old Rossi, who was among the final cuts from Italy's roster ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, may yet have a chance to represent the Azzurri on the world stage.

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Watch his latest goal below: