The worry that Luciano Spalletti articulated so openly in his pre-Parma press conference — “I am very concerned” — has deepened into something requiring urgent specialist assessment. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Khéphren Thuram will fly to Lyon at the start of next week to consult Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet, the French knee specialist who has previously operated on both Gleison Bremer and Federico Gatti. The consultation will be decisive: a new course of treatment, or surgery.
A Summer That Has Been Entirely Lost
The context behind this development is a history of almost unrelenting misfortune. The patellofemoral syndrome that has kept Thuram sidelined since last spring cost him his place in the French World Cup squad, deprived him of the entire pre-season at the Continassa, and denied him participation in every friendly across Hong Kong, Perth, and the domestic warmup games. His return to group training ahead of the Frosinone opener seemed to signal recovery. The subsequent relapse has reignited an alarm that nobody at the club was prepared to face again.
Forty days of individual training. The entire tour missed. Every pre-season friendly unavailable. And now, with the competitive season underway and Sonnery-Cottet’s verdict awaited, the possibility of surgery — and a significantly longer absence — has moved from background risk to live consideration.
The Transfer Market Consequence: An Urgent Search, on Loan or at Low Cost
La Gazzetta is explicit about what Thuram’s situation means for the window’s final 48 hours. With the Kessié negotiation having collapsed on Saturday morning over the signing bonus structure, and with Thuram potentially facing surgery that would rule him out for months rather than weeks, the pressure on Carnevali and Massara to find a midfield solution before 1 September has intensified sharply. The parameters are defined by the UEFA Settlement Agreement: a loan or a low-cost operation, not an expensive permanent acquisition. Whether the market’s final hours can produce the right name at the right price is the question on which the window’s last chapter will be written.
