Salernitana have requested the second leg of their Serie B relegation play-off against Sampdoria be postponed, after players and staff were admitted to hospital with food poisoning.

The Italian club have formally requested a postponement after 21 of the travelling party became ill as they flew back from Genoa after losing Sunday's first leg 2-0.

Salernitana face relegation to Italy's third tier after dropping out of Serie A 12 months ago, but many of their players are too ill to train before Friday's second leg.

"We are truly shocked by what happened and by the series of events that risk jeopardising Salernitana's smooth and peaceful approach to the final and crucial minutes of the season," club CEO Maurizio Milan said.

"Many players and staff, at the moment, are not even able to show up at the sports centre to resume training."

The club say they have made informal contact with Serie B officials and received "general openness" to evaluating their postponement request.

Salernitana have also called for an investigation into the "causes of this widespread and serious episode".

They had been due to play Frosinone in the relegation play-off, but a four-point deduction for Brescia because of financial irregularities meant they were automatically relegated in place of Sampdoria, who then replaced Frosinone in the tie. (BBC Sports)