Federico Gatti to miss at least a month after suffering meniscus injury in Juve’s Coppa Italia win

It was about 12 months in the past wherein Juventus’ defensive crunch turned its most excessive. It compelled two gamers, Federico Gatti and Pierre Kalulu, to basically play each single minute or each single sport as a result of there merely wasn’t anyone else accessible as a consequence of accidents. It stretched them to their bodily limits, and compelled Juve to dip into the January market a number of occasions to usher in some much-needed assist with depth.

Now, it’s an damage to Gatti that’s added to the depth disaster.

Juventus introduced on Wednesday that Gatti would require surgical procedure after selecting up a medial meniscus tear in Tuesday evening’s Coppa Italia Spherical of 16 win over Udinese on the Allianz Stadium in Turin. It’s far more than the preliminary prognosis Luciano Spalletti threw out. throughout his post-match press convention when he mentioned Gatti picked up a knee sprain. However the exams that Gatti underwent revealed far more than only a sprain, as he’s set to endure surgical procedure on the meniscus tear “within the coming days,” in line with Juventus’ replace.

Right here is the brief but crucial replace after Gatti underwent scans Wednesday morning:

Federico Gatti, who was substituted through the second half of the Juventus-Udinese match following a proper knee sprain, underwent additional radiological exams at J|medical this morning. The exams revealed a medial meniscus tear, requiring surgical procedure, which can be carried out within the coming days.

You just about knew no type of excellent news was on its method when Gatti left J Medical after practically an hour-long go to on crutches. It was an indication of what was to return.

So now Juventus will head to Naples to face Napoli this weekend with two wholesome middle backs: Kalulu and Lloyd Kelly. Contemplating he has performed in a again three more often than not since Spalletti took over as supervisor in late-October, we are able to in all probability contemplating Teun Koopmeiners as a middle again choice at this level as properly. However the easy undeniable fact that Juve at the moment have extra pure middle backs injured as in comparison with wholesome, it’s only a continuation of the depth points they’d on the again final season when Kalulu and Gatti needed to play so typically.

Daniele Rugani and Gleison Bremer aren’t anticipated again for the journey to Naples, with the previous doubtlessly being again for subsequent week’s Champions League matchup in opposition to Pafos. Bremer’s standing is a bit more unknown, with a possible mid- or late-December return to motion nonetheless doubtlessly within the playing cards after his personal meniscus surgical procedure.

Gatti has already handled bodily points this season, having to slowly ramp up coming off the Membership World Cup because of the heel damage he suffered towards the top of the 2024-25 marketing campaign. He has performed in 14 video games in all competitions — which is properly off the tempo from final season when he made 42 appearances and performed practically 3,300 minutes underneath Thiago Motta after which Igor Tudor.