Andrea Barzagli injury: Juventus defender out for up to two months with separated shoulder

When Juventus issues an injury update on a player just a few short hours after said player gets hurt like they did with Andrea Barzagli on Sunday, you have a feeling that the forthcoming news won’t be all that good.

We had that second update Monday.

And yep, not all that great.

Juventus announced that Barzagli, who had to be subbed off just a couple of minutes into Sunday’s 2-1 win over Chievo, could be out until the new year after he separated his shoulder against the Flying Donkeys. Initial reports suggested that Barzagli could be out around a month because of the injury, and now we know that it is going to be a little bit longer than just an early-December return to the field.

Here is the brief update, courtesy of Juventus’ official website:

Further examinations at J-Medical today have confirmed the scale of the shoulder inury sustained by Andrea Barzagli five minutes into Sunday's victory over Chievo in Verona.

The defender's arm will be in a sling for the next four weeks with a return to action scheduled for approximately for two months' time.

For one: Dammit, dammit all to hell.

Secondly: Thank goodness Daniele Rugani and Medhi Benatia are around.

As much as it sucks to see somebody like Giorgio Chiellini get hurt, seeing Barzagli out for an extended period of time is even tougher. Chiellini’s form has been up and down and everywhere in between for what seems like two or three years now, but Barzagli — to the surprise of absolutely nobody — has been one of Juve’s best players in a season where the team’s performances have been anything but consistently good.

It will be interesting to see what direction Max Allegri goes with this. Not just speaking in tactical terms, too, folks. Benatia, much to his credit, has been very good whenever he’s been used this season even though he’s dealt with his own injury issues this season. But we also know that Rugani was really, really good when he got regular playing time in the second half of last season.

So which direction do you think Allegri will go in? As much as it may suck that we probably won’t see Barzagli until the calendar flips over to 2017, it’s not like there are a couple of scrubs who will be battling for time as his replacement over the next couple of months.