Federico Bernardeschi to miss at least two weeks with groin injury

It wouldn’t be an international break without at least one Juventus player coming back injured and forced to miss some time because of it, right?

Federico Bernardeschi, you’re unfortunately said player.

Juventus announced Tuesday that Bernardeschi will miss at least two weeks due to a muscle injury in his groin that he picked up while on international duty with Italy. Bernardeschi originally suffered the injury shortly after coming on during Italy’s scoreless draw against Northern Ireland on Monday night and has since returned to Turin with the rest of his Italian teammates. (Guessing the mood with those guys isn’t so great based on what happened with the whole World Cup qualification process and all that.)

The short statement from Juve’s official website:

The diagnostic tests that Federico Bernardeschi underwent this morning at J | Medical showed a low-grade lesion of the right iliopsoas muscle; in 10 days time, new checks will be carried out.

The injury to Bernardeschi and the fact that he will miss some rather important fixtures coming up here in the next couple of weeks has us asking the question you probably know that’s coming: “Who’s ready for more Adrien Rabiot out on the left wing????”

A quick visit over to La Gazzetta dello Sport’s lineup predictor already has Rabiot slotted in on the left wing for Juve’s trip to the Italian capital this weekend to face Lazio and old pal Maurizio Sarri. That is something that, unfortunately with Bernardeschi now out injured, we will likely see happen more often than not because that’s been the way Max Allegri has gone so far this season. As much as Bernardeschi’s form was improving over the last couple of months, the fact that he’s hurt at this crucial juncture of the season is a blow to Juventus simply because of the Rabiot-on-the-left experiment that continues to roll on.

So hopefully after Bernardeschi gets re-evaluated in a few weeks it’s good news and not another week or two on the sideline. Because, as weird as it sounds considering what his form has been like for much of the last two or three years, Bernardeschi is a relatively valuable player these days.