Juventus rule out defender Giorgio Cheillini for 15 to 20 days with right knee injury

It's been an eventful couple of months for Giorgio Chiellini. Not because of how often he's played or how his form is. It's kind of the opposite, actually. Since the start of February, Chiellini has played in all of three — yes, THREE! — games because he's been picking up one injury after another.

Time to tack another Chiellini injury onto the list. It's been that kind of season for everybody's favorite part-time nerd, part-time wrecking ball of a defender. Here's the nuts-and-bolts announcement from Juventus' official website:

Giorgio Chiellini today underwent an MRI scan that revealed a light tear of the medial collateral ligament in the defender's right knee.

He is expected to return to competitive action within the next 15 to 20 days.

They sound as grumpy about this latest Chiellini injury as I am. I don't blame them, either.

Not only does this put Chiellini's status for the final three Serie A games of the season at risk, but also the Coppa Italia final against Milan on May 21. That obviously is more than the 15-to-20-day timetable given. But what has shown us that Chiellini is going to be able to recover and hit full match fitness in time for Juventus to defend their Coppa Italia?

It's just been one of those years — or couple of months, specifically — where what can go wrong has gone wrong for one of Europe's best defenders. Thank goodness there's Daniele Rugani around to take Chiellini's spot. That's the only good thing to come out of Chiellini's handful of injuries these past few months. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.