In a final weekend of the 2025-26 season in which Juventus needed to beat rival Torino and get plenty of help, manager Luciano Spalletti needed all hands on deck to even have a chance to make the near-impossible happen and see the Bianconeri somehow get into the Champions League.
That first part doesn’t look like it will be the case.
And it’s one of the worst possible developments Spalletti could see happen.
According to multiple reports in Italy from the likes of Sky Italia, La Gazzetta dello Sport
and TuttoJuve on Friday evening, Spalletti is set to be without star attacker Kenan Yildiz after the 21-year-old Turk picked up a calf strain in training earlier in the day. Yildiz’s condition will be evaluated on Saturday morning ahead of the final training session before the team gets set to face Torino in the Derby della Mole at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino on Sunday night, but all signs point to him being out and seeing his season suddenly come to an end one game early.
Just before news broke of Yildiz’s injury — remember, he has been dealing with knee inflammation for the better part of the last two months — he was named the Serie A Rising Star of the Season, which is given to the league’s best Under-23 player.
Considering Yildiz has been hampered by his knee inflammation and what seems like simple fatigue from playing so many minutes this season, it may not be a surprise to see something else pop up at the very end of the campaign and have him miss time because of it. Yildiz has played nearly 3,700 minutes in all competitions for Juventus this season — trailing just Pierre Kalulu, Lloyd Kelly and Weston McKennie. That is a lot of mileage on his young but talented frame, and having trying to grit his teeth through his knee pain these past few weeks has seen his performance level suffer as a result.
And now, there’s something that will sounds like will keep him out of action completely.
With Yildiz out, Spalletti will almost certainly turn to Jerémié Boga in his place the left wing. Boga was the lone bright spot in Juve’s 2-0 loss to Fiorentina last Saturday that has now put them in a near-impossible situation to get back into the top four.
Juventus enter the final weekend of the season in sixth place after their huge letdown against Fiorentina a week ago that dropped them down from third place completely out of the Champions League places. Spalletti not only needs to beat Torino on Sunday, but also see Como and one of Roma or AC Milan all drop points in their respective season finales. If one of those three things doesn’t happen, then Juventus will play in the Europa League next season.
Yildiz will reportedly be out a couple of weeks, which means he should be back in time as Turkiye open up the World Cup group stage against Australia in Vancouver, Canada, on June 13.
