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In case you've been living under a rock the last couple of months, Giorgio Chiellini has developed a pattern lately. He gets hurt, then comes back, and then gets hurt again. It's something that's like that awful pop song you can't seem to escape on the radio — over and over again, stuck on repeat with no official end in sight.
The latest edition of this came on Saturday when Chiellini had to be subbed off in the second half of Juventus' 1-0 win over Empoli after picking up yet another injury. Come Monday as morning turned to afternoon in Turin, the official diagnosis has been revealed, with the veteran defender set to miss another couple of weeks due to picking up a right thigh injury.
From the always-busy Juventus injury update team:
Having exited the field of play during the second half of Juventus' win over Empoli on Saturday evening, Giorgio Chiellini underwent tests this afternoon, which revealed a first-grade tear in the adductor longus muscle in his right thigh.
The defender will be out of action for approximately 20 days.
And I hope on the 21st day I am not sitting here writing about Chiellini getting injured again. But that's just me.
Today is April 4, so if the 20-day stays true to form and Chiellini doesn't try to come back after 48 hours on the sidelines, it means he will miss the following games:
April 9: Juventus at Milan
April 17: Palermo at Juventus
April 20: Lazio at Juventus
April 24: Juventus at Fiorentina
With the way Daniele Rugani is playing these days, Chiellini missing the four games above might be a bigger deal than it would have been in previous seasons. That's a good thing, although now Juve's depth at center back is completely zapped and non-existent. I guess the good thing is that Max Allegri has shown a comfort level with fielding a 3-5-2 when only three central defenders are available to him. And we all know he doesn't mind switching around the formation if need be.
Above all else, though, I just want Chiellini to be actually 100 percent healthy and not continue to see his season be taken over by 50-minute appearances in his first game back after the last injury layoff. Having Chiellini play a couple of games in succession now seems like it would be a somewhat big development based on how things have gone lately. Just get healthy, man, that's all we can ask of you at this point.