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The troublesome right feel of Andrea Barzagli isn't going away anytime soon. And unfortunately for Barzagli, that means even more time in the training room and working away from the main group on a particular rehab schedule.
Juventus announced just a few short hours before their showdown with Roma that the 33-year-old Barzagli will miss at least another month of the season after undergoing another round of tests on his right heel that revealed a stress reaction in the bone. The club's statement, courtesy of juventus.com, is as follows:
Andrea Barzagli has visited a specialist and undergone MRI scan in a bid to ascertain the full extent of the continued discomfort he continues to feel in his right heel, operated on in July.
The tests revealed stress around the heel bone.
The defender will therefore change his recovery regime and continue with therapy and individual workouts for another 30 days before undergoing new tests designed to monitor his progress.
Barzagli, who has been bothered by the same heel injury for months before finally undergoing surgery on it this past July, was expected to be back in the lineup around mid-September once he went through his rehab process and regained match fitness. He was included in a match day squad just once against Udinese back in the second round of fixtures this season, but then the heel injury flared up again, causing Barzagli to train away from the group once more.
And as was reported by the Gazzetta dello Sport a few days ago, the reason for Barzagli still missing in action is in fact due to having that stupid right heel injury being re-aggravated, thus kicking off the latest round of tests and medical exams. So now we wait — again — for Barzagli to get healthy once more. If all goes according to plan and it's around a month on the sidelines for the ever-important center back, he'll be trying to get back when the November international break arrives.
Thank goodness for Martín Cáceres and his pure awesomeness. And Angelo Ogbonna, too. Not a bad pair of fallback options to have when one of your best defenders is out with a long-term injury.
