Croatia’s team doctor says Juventus were wrong about Marko Pjaca’s injury diagnosis

Because of things we can’t control, we haven’t been able to see much of Marko Pjaca as a Juventus all that much since he signed with the five-time Italian champions over the summer. For a lot of us, that’s a pretty disappointing development considering our excitement upon his signing day and then the brief glimpses of his talent that we’ve gotten since his first few appearances.

The whole reason for this is because of a leg injury that was originally thought to have been misdiagnosed by the Croatian national team’s medical staff. The same doctor that originally thought that Pjaca could have a broken leg, Igor Boric, spoke to reporters during Croatia’s training session on Thursday — which gave him a shot to tell us how he really feels about the situation with the 21-year-old winger and the two medical staffs.

“When the player was visited by us, we knew right away that he had this fractured fibula. In Turin though they responded in an objectionable way, telling us that we couldn’t come over there and tell them how to work.

“When Pjaca returned to Turin, there was the clearest proof that our diagnosis was sound. It’s not heresy to say we have better professionals than Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus.”

(Source: Football Italia)

If you’re the only person sitting here thinking that this is Boric sitting back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head while he puts his feet up and telling everybody “I told you so!,” then you’re probably not alone. If Pjaca had come back when we first thought he would be returning to the field last month, then none of this would be even something that Croatia’s top doctor could be talking about.

But, because there’s been setbacks in Pjaca’s recovery that has pushed his return back until after the current international break at the earliest, we have to acknowledge that Pjaca’s original rehab time laid out of Juve’s doctors wasn’t what is has become.

The main thing is that we want Pjaca to come back healthy and be available to contribute. That would be nice. He is a pretty good player — when he is actually on the field, of course.