Report: Juventus cautiously optimistic that Paulo Dybala will be available for Lyon

It is a waiting game as to whether Paulo Dybala will be available for Juventus’ biggest game of the season next Friday night against Lyon in the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16.

The weeklong wait, with a good or bad end game, will be one of the biggest things that Juve supporters will be following prior to kickoff in Turin next week.

But, there might be reason for a little bit of optimism as we stand on the eve of Juventus’ Serie A finale against Roma this weekend. That’s thanks to a Corriere Torino report (via VecchiaSignora) on Friday that stated the Juventus management team is cautiously optimistic that Dybala — who had to be subbed off injured with a thigh injury in Juve’s Scudetto-clinching win over Sampdoria — has been listed as day to day, which is obviously not a great indicator as to when he may actually be back on the field and available for Maurizio Sarri.

Sarri said at his pre-match Friday that “Dybala is with the medical staff. They told me the recovery process is going well, but I don’t know when he’ll return.”

That’s basically the only thing we know that’s on the record outside of the “day to day” diagnosis we got the day after Dybala was injured. Maybe Sarri is pulling a Max Allegri and being very, very coy with what an injured player’s status actually is. You gotta think there’s at least a little bit of gamesmanship going on knowing that we’re now a week out from the second leg of the round of 16.

But until we know for sure that Dybala is back training, we can’t really assume that he will be ready in time. As for now, the only real option is to wait. And hope. Having some hope that one of Juventus’ most important players is healthy for the biggest game of the season would be nice. That means Juve probably has a better chance of advancing. That, too, would be nice.