For much of the past week, the general assumption was that Dusan Vlahovic was going to make his long-awaited return to Juventus’ matchday squad as the Bianconeri headed to Udine for a crucial matchup in the race for the top four. Even as an option off the bench, Vlahovic’s return was going to be something that was going to be welcomed with open arms with how much Jonathan David continues to be an inconsistent source of goals.
We will have to wait a little bit longer for the man who wears No. 9 at
Juventus to be back.
The Vlahovic return will have to wait another week as he was not included in Luciano Spalletti’s squad to face Udinese at the Friuli on Saturday night. While not 100% official yet, it has been widely reported by pretty much everybody in the Italian media in which we are to take seriously that Vlahovic will not be available to Spalletti. What that means for Juventus’ starting lineup remains to be seen, but it’s now a situation much like what we’ve seen since early December — there will be one fewer option up front for Spalletti to choose from.
Vlahovic has not appeared in a game since he picked up an injury that required surgery in his left adductor in late November. It came at a time in which Juve were still just a month into their time with Spalletti, but Vlahovic was a regular starter under their then-new manager.
Just how quickly Vlahovic gets back into the starting lineup still remains to be seen. But it looks as though that first potential first start since his adductor injury will come after the international break rather than against Sassuolo next weekend. (Unless, of course, Spalletti has a big surprise for us and Vlahovic is deemed fit to play more than 20-30 minutes right out of the gate after not appearing in a game for nearly four months.)
But just remember that the original timetable for Vlahovic’s return after surgery was up to four months. Him coming back early in March was always going to be a race against time, and now we’re finding out that a mid-March return to the squad was still a little too much to ask. He has been training with the group on a full-time basis for the last few days, but is clearly still lacking in some aspect(s) or else he would have been included in the squad that will travel to Udine.
So we continue to wait for Vlahovic’s return. That means we will all have plenty of time to talk about his contract talks, right?
