For as much as Juventus’ big first half against Parma on Sunday was another feather in the cap for Luciano Spalletti, there was still one thing for the veteran manager to suddenly worry about: the health of Kenan Yildiz. That is because Juve’s budding Turkish star asked Spalletti toward the end of the first half to come off at the half having felt something physically that needed to be addressed as soon as possible.
While Yildiz likely won’t be heading to J Medical to undergo scans, there is still
a pretty good chance that we don’t see him the next time Juventus takes the field in a few days.
According to both Tuttosport and La Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday, the slight adductor strain that Yildiz suffered in the first half of the win over Parma will mean he likely misses Thursday’s Coppa Italia quarterfinal tie against Atalanta in Bergamo and then Sunday’s league fixture at the Allianz Stadium against three days later. That goes along with what Spalletti said after the win over Parma. “We trusted (Yildiz), but he now has a bit of pain even when walking, so we have to evaluate it, but it shouldn’t be too serious. I think it’ll be tough to get him ready for Thursday,” Spalletti said.
As would be the case when it comes to a minor injury to a very important player as Yildiz is, his condition will be monitored on a daily basis, with Sky Italia saying there is a chance that if all goes well he could be part of the squad for Sunday’s game against Lazio.
Considering the amount of minutes Yildiz has played so far this season, in a way it feels like a minor fatigue-related injury like he suffered against Parma. Yildiz entered Sunday night’s game having played the second-most amount of minutes of any Juve outfield player this season, and many were starting to wonder when such a heavy workload for such a crucial player might start catching up with him a little bit, if not more.
Thus the reason why this past weekend’s signing of Jérémie Boga — which was announced just before Juventus’ win over Parma — will hopefully prove to be vital so that Yildiz won’t have to play so many minutes no matter what the race for the top four is looking like come the springtime.
But, of course, the good news in all of this is that Yildiz isn’t expected to miss much time at all. Even if it ends up being both the Coppa tie against Atalanta and then maybe Lazio’s visit to Turin this weekend, that’s a whole lot better than when you first hear that Yildiz asked to be subbed off at the half. So rest up, kid, you’re going to be needed in a couple of games more than ever.
