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And so it begins.
Just a mere two days after moving from Real Madrid to Juventus for €20 million, striker Álvaro Morata is going to be sitting on the sidelines. The 21-year-old Spaniard reported a problem with his left knee during the team's second training session on Monday afternoon at Vinovo and could be spending a good chunk of time recovering from an injury that will do nothing to ease the pain of those Juventini who are in search of some good news these days.
The Juventus website had a detailed report regarding Morata's health status:
During this afternoon's training session, Alvaro Morata sprained his left knee. His conditions will be evaluated tomorrow.
Okay, that's not very detailed.
Here's something a little more detailed, courtesy of Gianluca Di Marzio:
Alvaro Morata starts his adventure at Juventus with an injury. He collided with Rubinho in today's training session and suffered a knee sprain with some LCL damage. Tomorrow the MRI will clarify the severity of the injury and the official prognosis will be communicated.
And because Morata is hurt, the Italian press isn't wasting any time to say how long he's going to be out for.
#Morata ipotesi 40 giorni di stop
— Vittorio Oreggia (@dirTuttosport) July 21, 2014
Just for the record, Di Marzio throws out the same 40-day period for recovery, so it's not just Tuttosport being Tuttsport.
If Morata is indeed out for around 40 days like some folks in Italy are saying, that will put him on schedule to return just about the same time Juve gets ready to open their season during the final weekend of August against an opponent still to be determined. It won't officially be known how long Morata is actually out for until he undergoes tests on his newly injured left knee on Tuesday. Either way, the initial rumblings don't suggest that it's anything positive — which means Morata could very well be set to miss a huge chunk of Juventus' preseason training and friendlies. Ugh.
Until then, though, we are left to wonder and worry about how long Juve's new striker will be out for. Maybe we should start a prayer circle or something like that. Or maybe we could just hope he recovers from injuries like Carlos Tévez and Arturo Vidal. Those guys are animals.
