AS Roma chief Walter Sabatini has defended the departure of Mattia Destro to AC Milan.

Since the striker's move, Roma's attack has been hit by injury.

Sabatini said: "With Destro it wasn't so much a football decision, because we wanted to give some breathing space to a player who was feeling oppressed by many things it's difficult to explain.

"Roma is a tough place to play in, it's very demanding and at times this lad was blamed for things that weren't his fault."