Considering we are just a few days away from new Juventus manager Luciano Spalletti having a full squad back at Continassa after the contingent of international players return to Turin, you maybe thought
that a “no news is good news” situation regarding those same guys and their health might be developing.
Nope, guess again.
Juventus and Spalletti look to potentially have a bit of an issue suddenly developing when it comes to his squad’s most important and high-profile players. That is because Juve striker Dusan Vlahovic has picked up an adductor strain, according to reports from Sky Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio and Tuttosport. Serbia manager Veljko Paunović announced at his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s game against Latvia that Vlahovic played through pain in Thursday’s loss to England, saying he finished the match against England in pain and is doubtful (against Latvia); he’s the main question mark for tomorrow.”
With Vlahovic likely to not play against Latvia considering Serbia no longer has a shot to qualify for the World Cup next summer, the attention turns toward Vlahovic not risking anything in a game that means nothing and trying to see if he will be available for Saturday’s trip to his old stomping grounds in Florence.
As Di Marzio said, “the club remains cautious: the discomfort is there and will have to be evaluated step by step.”
Considering the fact that Spalletti has put a lot of initial trust in Vlahovic to lead the line, suddenly having him injured now potentially throws a wrench into what the 66-year-old tactician had planned for JUventus’ return to the field next weekend. And considering Vlahovic has played a central role in Juve’s attack under Spalletti through his first three games in charge in Turin, the alternatives if he has to miss time are not all that inspiring.
Added to all of this is that the international break was looked as a time where Spalletti would start to have Juventus look more like his squad in terms of formation as compared to using essentially the same 3-4-2-1 setup that Igor Tudor used the vast majority of the time when he was manager. If Spalletti was thinking of going with something like a 4-3-3 against Fiorentina, does Vlahovic’s potential absence change that? It’s hard to say — especially with Vlahovic yet to arrive back in Turin and undergo tests at everybody’s favorite training facility, J Medical.
So now we just wait to see what things are like over the next few days and if he’s able to return to training before the squad heads to Florence to face the worst team in Serie A at the moment. With the way that some of Juve’s other strikers are playing at the moment, losing Vlahovic is something that Spalletti doesn’t need to see happen.
