Paulo Dybala to stay on international duty with Argentina — for now

The second we saw Paulo Dybala hit the turf at the Marassi, not immediately get up and instead signal that a substitution was the right plan of action, the same question popped into each one of our heads: “How long is he going to be out for?”

We’ve become conditioned to think that way whenever a Juventus player gets injured over the last few years. And when you throw in what Juve’s schedule is like coming out of the international break — two games in four days against Napoli, the Champions League quarterfinal showdown against Barcelona — any potential timetable when it comes to recovery time is that much more important.

After Tuesday, we still don’t really know.

Dybala, as expected, has gone off and honored his inclusion in Argentina’s squad for its upcoming games against Chile and Bolivia in World Cup qualifying. And, as expected, he has undergo medical examinations with Argentina’s doctors. The results were not really anything bad. He’s not out for two months. He doesn’t have a torn hamstring or anything like that. But, as Argentinian football federation announced on its website Tuesday evening, Dybala has basically been deemed as something we’ve heard from the Juventus camp in previous short-term injury cases — he’s been given a “day-to-day” diagnosis where he will be evaluated as the week goes on.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Reports out of Italy were going back and forth as to what Dybala’s status is even before the actual medical examination was announced by the Argentina camp. Would he stay? Would he go back to Turin? Was he just going to sit on Instagram all day and plug his new website and personal logo? (That last one is meant as a joke. Dybala is a nice young man who obviously has a social media team that is pushing this new branding.)

But because it’s day-to-day, we’re left to play the waiting game. I guess if we see Dybala taking the field in an Argentina jersey in the next few days, we could probably assume he’s okay and healthy. But Max Allegri did say that Dybala might not have been 100 percent when he took the field against Sampdoria this past weekend, so who truly knows what Dybala’s health status is at this exact moment.

It sure would be a little more reassuring if he was back in Turin resting and hanging out with his girlfriend rather than being on international duty. The last thing Dybala, Juventus and all of us need to see happen is his injury-related absence be drawn out like the last time he was injured this season. That, yeah, that wasn’t good.