Juventus Face Injury Crisis as Locatelli Set for Surgery

Juventus have been dealt a brutal blow. Captain Manuel Locatelli will undergo surgery on his right knee and is expected to be sidelined for at least three months, plunging an already depleted midfield into full-blown emergency.

The 28-year-old suffered the injury in Sunday’s bruising draw with AC Milan at the Allianz Stadium. What initially looked like manageable discomfort quickly turned into something far more serious once the swelling went down and the scans came back.

The tests confirmed a significant lesion to the external meniscus. No half-measures this time. Club doctors, wary of the long-term implications, have chosen a meniscus suture rather than a simple trimming of the damaged tissue — a more complex, more conservative intervention, but one that better protects the joint for the rest of his career.

The price is time. A lot of it.

Tuttosport report a minimum recovery period of three months, effectively ruling Locatelli out until the winter break. For Massimiliano Allegri and his staff, that is not just a setback. It is a structural problem.

Midfield stretched to breaking point

The timing could hardly be worse. Juventus were already trying to navigate a season with their midfield hanging by a thread.

Khephren Thuram is in the middle of a long, lonely road back after surgery for a femoro-patellar syndrome. His absence was always going to be measured in years, not months: the Frenchman is not expected to return to competitive action until 2027. Locatelli had become the reference point in that vacuum, the player stitching together phases of play and holding the team’s shape.

Now he is gone too, at least until the turn of the year.

The dominoes keep falling. Weston McKennie has missed the last two matches with persistent muscular fatigue, his body refusing to respond under the heavy workload. Summer arrival Pape Sarr, signed from Tottenham Hotspur to add legs and energy, has barely had the chance to lace his boots properly. A minor muscular issue and a compromised pre-season have left him short of rhythm and far from ready to command a starting role.

On paper, Juventus still have midfielders. On the pitch, they are running out of trusted solutions.

Yildiz out, creativity evaporating

The crisis does not stop in the middle of the park. Up front, Kenan Yildiz remains a long-term absentee after foot surgery, with his return only pencilled in for after the November international break.

His absence has already dulled Juventus’ edge in the final third. Yildiz’s ability to improvise, to beat a man and unlock a low block, had become a rare weapon in tight Serie A games. Without him, and now without Locatelli’s passing from deep, the team looks increasingly blunt against organised defences.

Recent draws have underlined the problem: plenty of possession, not enough incision. Take away your main distributor and one of your few genuine creative sparks, and the margin for error shrinks to almost nothing.

Defence feeling the strain

Even at the back, the treatment room is busy. Jeff Ekhator and Juan Cabal are both out and expected to miss roughly another month as they work their way through their respective recovery programmes. Neither is a headline name, but in a squad already stretched, every absence bites.

There is at least a sliver of optimism around Andrea Cambiaso. The Italy international is dealing with a minor ankle sprain, and the club hope he can rejoin the group sooner than the others. His versatility down the flank could prove vital in the coming weeks, especially if Allegri is forced to tweak systems to compensate for the missing midfield core.

Youth called to step into the storm

With senior options disappearing one by one, Juventus are turning inward. The Juventus Next Gen squad, competing in the lower tiers of Italian football, is no longer just a development project. It is a lifeline.

Several youngsters are expected to be pulled into first-team training and matchday squads to plug gaps and provide fresh legs. Among the names circulating most often in technical meetings is Augusto Owusu. The young midfielder has impressed scouts with his maturity and performances for the reserve side, and his profile fits what Juventus suddenly lack: energy, willingness to cover ground, and the courage to play under pressure.

This is the new reality for the Bianconeri. No Locatelli, no Thuram, no Yildiz — and a season that will not pause to let them breathe.

Can a patched-up core, propped up by kids from Next Gen, really carry Juventus through to winter without the campaign slipping away?