Jose Mourinho Says Lazio Players Spent Evening 'Smoking Cigarettes With Maurizio Sarri' In Post-Match Interview

He added: “Now Sarri is at home smoking his cigarette while I go home trying to think how we can recover from this for Sunday.”

Sarri is believed to average around three to four packets of cigarettes a day, according to reports.

“I smoke 60 a day, which is probably a few too many,” Sarri told La Nuova Riviera. “I don’t particularly feel the need to smoke during games, but straight afterwards it really is necessary. I had back problems tormenting me for weeks, but I feel much better now.”

In an interview after their win against Venezia on Monday, Sarri commented on the fact Lazio having longer to prepare for the derby compared to their opponents.

“I’ve always said that we haven’t been able to play three games a week and the numbers show that. We have an average of 2.1 points per game without the Europa League and 0.60 with the Europa League," he told Sky Sports.

“Given that we’ve played eight games in Europe, the maths shows that we’ve dropped about ten points. That’s our limit. Of course playing on Thursday is not like playing on Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s difficult.

“In fact the teams that have played on Thursday have not won and I don’t think that’s by chance. In my opinion, playing on Thursday and Sunday, sometimes after not even 72 hours, is an exaggeration, but this is modern football and whoever gets used to it better gets ahead.”