Report: Matthijs de Ligt, Alex Sandro to return after the international break

On more than a few occasions over the last few weeks the question of “When will Matthijs de LIgt be back on the field?” or some variation of it has been posted in the comment section here. Same kind of thing has happened when it comes to Alex Sandro’s potential return even though we only thought he was going to be out for a couple of weeks.

We have an answer to both ... sort of.

According to a report from Sky Sport Italia (via Football Italia), both de Ligt and Sandro — two of the biggest names that are currently not playing for Juventus due to injury — are set to return to the field when the upcoming international break is over and done with. Seeing as this is the Tuesday of the week before said international break arrives, that is a little under three weeks away before Juventus faces Cagliari in Turin on Saturday, Nov. 21.

Good news, right?

Obviously for de Ligt, this is the kind of timeline that falls right into place with what we heard 2 ¹⁄₂ months ago when he underwent shoulder surgery on his 21st birthday. It was going to be a three-month recovery from the onset, so it was just a matter of when he actually got his injured shoulder repaired after putting it off until the completion of the 2019-20 season. From that day on November was always the target. We didn’t know when exactly since a separated shoulder is always a delicate type of injury, especially when you’re such a physical defender like the young Dutchman is.

Sandro is more of the more complicated matter since he’s been out much longer than any of us thought he would when he was injured two days before Juve’s season opener against Sampdoria. Back then, we only thought he would be missing in action for a couple of weeks and that would be that. Well, that was about six weeks ago, and there’s been no sign of Sandro (even in training photos) since his Sept. 19 injured was announced by the club.

But if both return when Sky Italia says they will after the international break — which, you gotta think is the Cagliari game in all likelihood — then Andrea Pirlo has two important pieces to the puzzle back in the fold right as the meat of the first-half schedule arrives both domestically and in Europe. That sounds like a pretty good thing to me.