The 32-year-old however has been cut from Italy coach Marcello Lippi's South Africa squad as he trimmed his preliminary squad down to 28 players.
Candreva, a former team-mate of Grosso at Juventus, has made just two appearances for the national side but has also failed to make it to South Africa.
Lippi revealed it had been a very difficult decision not to include Grosso in his South Africa squad but that players could not be selected on the basis of past achievements.
Lippi said: "It was hard to call him (Grosso), just as it was tough not to call 14 of the 23 players with whom I shared important moments in Germany.
"I spoke to Fabio yesterday and you cannot imagine how saddened I was to make this call.
"But this is my decision.
"I don't make the Italy squad based on debts of merit because I cannot choose based on what happened in the past."
The Azzurri will play Mexico on June 3 in Brussels and then will take on Switzerland two days later in Geneva as they make their final World Cup preparations.
Preliminary Italy squad:
Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli), Federico Marchetti (Cagliari), Salvatore Sirigu (Palermo); Gianluca Zambrotta (Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Leonardo Bonucci (Bari), Domenico Criscito (Genoa), Mattia Cassani (Palermo), Salvatore Bocchetti (Genoa); Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Andrea Cossu (Cagliari), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Simone Pepe (Udinese); Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Marco Borriello (Milan), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria
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