Inter Milan star Lautaro Martinez has been ordered to compensate the family of a terminally ill babysitter who died after he sacked her for taking too many sick days.

An Italian labour court in Milan was told how Martinez dismissed the 27-year-old woman after just eight months when she learned she had a terminal disease.

Judges were told, reports local media, that she was fired for exceding the maximum number of sick days allowed.

Following her death in January 2023, her family began a legal battle to prove her contract was ‘illegally terminated’, reports local media.

Judges at the Court of Milan agreed and on 11th October ordered the GBP 10 million-a-year former Chelsea forward to compensate her family.

Some local media reports said he will have to pay her family’s legal fees and at least 15 months’ wages.

After the ruling furious Martinez and his model wife Agustina Gandolfo denied any wrongdoing in a bitter statement on Instagram.

They claimed the babysitter was a family friend whom they had helped nurse through her illness by paying medical bills.

Martinez said: “I decided to stay silent for a long time out of respect for a family who had no respect for us.

“But I will not allow them to defame my family.

“We hired someone who was already ill, who had been our friend for years, until unfortunately, she was no longer in a condition to work.

“We did a great deal for her and her family.

“We paid for their tickets to fly here, we helped her with treatment and to find a place for her family, who we had to convince to come to Italy and look after their daughter who was dying.”

He went on: “After all of that, they waited until their daughter was about to die and not aware of what was happening so they could try to get money out of us and make the most of the situation.

“Even after her death, they continued to push.

“We helped her when she needed us and now they start this, trying to defame us?

“What kind of person must you be to use the death of your daughter to get money?

“We are disgusted at the Lizzola family. They should get to work!”

Martinez’s lawyer Anthony Macchia even went on to claim that the babysitter had asked to be fired to help with her severance pay.

He said: “It is not true that Mr. Martinez terminated the work relationship when the worker was ‘at the point of death’ as ​​emerges from reading the articles circulating online, awaiting dismissal.

“She was fired six months before her death.

“Furthermore the babysitter had asked to be fired in order to be able to benefit from the deferred wages and severance pay due to her determination to return to her native land, Argentina.

“My client, although humanly sorry for the young girl’s premature death, finds himself forced to take, through me, a formal position regarding a piece of news that he would never have wanted to comment on publicly.

“It is not true that Mr. Martinez did not want to reconcile and put an end to the dispute.

“My client was even willing to donate the amounts indicated by the Labor Judge of the Court of Milan to a charity to be chosen at the discretion of the judge and the agreement was not possible due to the refusal of the lady’s heirs and her prosecutors present at the hearing.”