Antonio Cassano, the former Italy forward who retired from football last year, is to train with Serie C side Virtus Entella from Monday.

Cassano quit in July 2017 without playing a competitive game for Hellas Verona, who he had joined that summer.

The 36-year-old was capped 39 times by Italy and played for major European clubs including Real Madrid, Roma and both Milan teams.

Virtus Entella said Cassano will be at the club "without any contractual tie".

The club added in a statement that they had "accepted the request" from Cassano to train with manager Roberto Boscaglia's first team.

Entella are 12th in the league, having won their only game this season.

Cassano raised eyebrows when he announced he was retiring just eight days after signing for Hellas Verona - who were relegated from Serie A last season.

But within hours he had a change of heart and said he would stay, adding he wanted to "rise to the challenge" and have a "crazy season".

Six days later, and after playing in two pre-season friendlies for his new side, he again said he was retiring and has not played a league game since May 2016.

Cassano started his career at his hometown club Bari before rising to prominence at Roma, where he scored 39 goals in 118 games.

He then had an unsuccessful season at Real Madrid before spells at Sampdoria, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Parma.

Cassano, who scored 10 times for Italy, was diagnosed with a defect in his heart and had surgery in November 2011.

He was fined by Uefa after saying he hoped there were no homosexuals in the Italy squad for Euro 2012.