With the start of the new week, Dusan Vlahovic has made his way back to Turin following Serbia’s final two World Cup qualifiers in which they were officially eliminated from taking part in next summer’s tournament. The first stop, as you probably guessed, was over to J Medical to find out the extent of the adductor issue that he picked up while on national team duty with Serbia.
The end result: a rather positive development.
However, we still don’t know to what extent it means for Vlahovic’s availability
against Fiorentina this weekend is still a rather unknown as we sit six days out from Juventus’ trip to the Franchi.
According to ilbianconero.com on Monday, Vlahovic’s trip to J Medical and subsequent tests ruled out any sort of muscle injury, with the initial diagnosis from the Serbian national team’s medical staff essentially confirmed. The problem is, though, what that means for Vlahovic and his potential for playing against his former club this Saturday is still a relative unknown. Juventus will likely have Vlahovic — who has started all three games under Luciano Spalletti since the managerial change late last month — as a doubt for much of the week, if not more than that considering rest is rest is likely going to keep him away from training with the rest of the group.
Vlahovic picked up the muscle issue late in Serbia’s 2-0 loss to England in World Cup qualifying on Thursday. It officially eliminated Serbia from World Cup contention. Veljko Paunović confirmed after the loss that Vlahovic was dealing with an issue but still ended up playing a full 90 minutes.
Now he’s back in Turin after not taking part in Serbia’s 2-1 win over Latvia to conclude the group stage of qualifying. While the tests didn’t find any sort of muscle injury, the fact that a striker that Spalletti has relied on through these early days at the club is now suddenly in doubt for a big stretch with some very winnable and important games domestically and in Europe is cause for concern.
What the rest of the week entails for Vlahovic’s health status will certainly be one of the biggest things to monitor as the days go on and Spalletti ramps up preparations to face last-place Fiorentina as the last few internationals make their way back to Continassa.
