Grieving De Rossi available to face Torino
Astori was found dead in his hotel room on Sunday, plunging Italian football into mourning and prompting the postponement of the day's Serie A fixtures.
The 31-year-old Fiorentina captain, who was found to have died of natural causes related to a heart problem, played alongside De Rossi at Roma in 2014-15 and also for Italy's national team.
Addressing the media on Thursday, the Giallorossi coach was asked if his skipper is in the right frame of mind to play on Friday.
"He's been very down, he was really close to Davide," said Di Francesco.
"From a physical point of view he's available and could play from the start.
"I watched the coverage of Davide Astori's funeral today. It was very emotional.
"I remember coming across him as a clean, fair and exemplary opponent.
"My deepest condolences to his family."
PRESS CONFERENCE | | Eusebio Di Francesco has arrived to preview tomorrow's Serie A clash against Torino. Key quotes to follow...#ASRoma #RomaTorino pic.twitter.com/tcnIlOHiG7— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) March 8, 2018
Roma registered an eye-catching 4-2 win away to league leaders Napoli last weekend, but Di Francesco is not getting carried away by that victory over Maurizio Sarri's front-runners.
"It's a starting point, what we've lacked in this period is consistency," he said.
"I'm not happy even with what happened in Naples when we conceded the second goal.
"We've given a bit too much away in defence recently, with went blow-for-blow with Napoli and fortunately we're now scoring regularly.
"We can give more at the back, but I [also] want more up front. Analysing the game in Naples there were mistakes, but also a lot of quality play."