The injury crisis at Juventus has not materialised suddenly in the opening weeks of the season. It has been building since the very first day of pre-season in July — and the full statistical picture, assembled by La Gazzetta dello Sport and corroborated across multiple sources, reveals a situation whose scale goes considerably beyond what any single matchday injury bulletin has captured.
The Full Count: 18 Injuries, 10 Muscular, Over 200 Days of Unavailability
Since the start of the summer pre-season, the cumulative total has reached 18 injuries, of which ten are muscular in nature. Players have accumulated over 200 days of unavailability in total, with the squad averaging more than four absentees per matchday.
The three surgical cases — Yıldız, Thuram, and Locatelli — represent the most visible and most significant dimension of the problem. Each requires months of recovery. Each addresses a position of fundamental importance. Together, they represent a simultaneous loss of the squad’s number ten, its first-choice central midfielders, and its captain — an accumulation so severe that no pre-season squad planning could have fully anticipated or adequately insured against it.
The Nine Currently Absent — and the Three Racing to Be Fit
As of Wednesday 9 September, the nine confirmed absentees are: Yıldız (foot surgery, returns November), Thuram (knee surgery, returns 2027), Locatelli (knee surgery, returns January), Boga (low-grade semimembranosus lesion, left thigh, approximately one month), Ekhator (semitendinosus lesion, right thigh, six weeks minimum), Cabal (semimembranosus lesion, several weeks), and three others managing physical problems that have prevented full group training. Sarr arrived from Tottenham with an adductor problem still in recovery, further complicating the squad’s midfield depth from the very first day of his tenure.
McKennie, Cambiaso, and Sarr are all targeting a return to group training before Sunday — hoping at minimum to be available from the bench at Sassuolo. None is guaranteed.
Is This Misfortune or Something More Structural?
The question that La Gazzetta raises — cautiously but explicitly — is whether 18 injuries in six weeks represent extreme statistical misfortune, inadequate pre-season physical preparation, or some combination of the two. The muscular injury rate — ten of the eighteen incidents — is the most concerning dimension. Muscular injuries at this volume and frequency typically indicate one or more of the following: insufficient preparation time due to late summer arrivals, overload in the early weeks of competitive football, or pre-existing vulnerabilities not fully addressed during pre-season. With nine new players arriving at different points throughout July and August — many without proper pre-season preparation — and a squad navigating an Asian tour in extreme heat simultaneously with the final weeks of transfer window activity, the conditions for an elevated muscular injury risk were present from the start.
Whether that structural vulnerability has now been addressed — or whether further incidents will continue to accumulate — is the question that will define whether this season can still achieve any of its stated ambitions.
