Juventus defender Andrea Barzagli to miss three weeks with a thigh injury

Injuries and Andrea Barzagli have been a way too common pair of things used in the same sentence the last couple of years. It's the reason whenever we hear reports — and the subsequent official club statements — about Barzagli's latest injury we feel the need to throw our hands above our head and scream "AGAIN?!" at the top of our lungs.

Well, get ready to throw those hands up again. Yeah, you know why. From Juventus' official website:

Andrea Barzagli will be sidelined for 20 days after pulling up with an injury to his right thigh at the end of the weekend's fixture. Subsequent tests have revealed a first-grade tear of the defender's adductor muscle.

That's a portion of a paragraph that also says Fernando Llorente will miss a little over a week with a twisted ankle (the reason why he missed the friendly against Borussia Dortmund). But the more important matter, no offense to Fernando, is that Barzagli will be out for the Italian Super Cup against Lazio next month and could be at risk for the season-opening game against Udinese if his rehabilitation goes any longer than the 20-day diagnosis.

Is it a good thing that it happened on one of the final days of July rather than one of the final days of preseason training camp? Well, yeah, that's pretty much a given. But knowing Barzagli's injury history over the last couple of seasons — both major injury absences and minor ones — it's hard to think that this will be his only instance of missing time this season.

I guess that one positive in all of this is that we will probably see more of Daniele Rugani during the remaining friendlies. And when you consider that Rugani seems like Barzagli's natural successor, then we might as well let the kid show what he can do. (And hopefully do quite well at the same time.)