OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Arthur has surgery, will miss three months

Because of Euro 2020 and Copa America taking place this summer, Max Allegri has already been working with a limited group of first team players during the first days of his return to Juventus. The number of potential starters present is completely outnumbered by the number of starters who are currently enjoying a little bit of a vacation before coming back to Turin.

On the second day of preseason training, Allegri could officially cross off another potential starter that won’t be taking part in team activities.

Juventus announced Friday that midfielder Arthur Melo will be out for the next three months after undergoing surgery to repair the right leg injury he first suffered back in February. Originally, Arthur could have either tried to see the injury through without surgery while relying on treatment and a short period out of action. That, obviously, did solve the problem, as the 24-year-old Brazilian will now be out until mid-October and, as a result, is at risk of not being included in Juve’s Champions League group stage squad list.

The statement from Juventus’ official website is as follows:

This afternoon Arthur underwent surgery to remove the ossification of the interosseous membrane of his right leg.

The operation, performed by Dr. Piana and Dr. Battiston, in the presence of the Juventus health officer Dr. Stefanini at the Fornaca clinic in Turin, was successful.

The recovery time is approximately 3 months.

Well, that’s disappointing, isn’t it?

Arthur, who arrived from Barcelona in the plusvalenza extravaganza that saw Miralem Pjanic head the other way to Spain, is obviously getting some heat for deciding not to get the surgery at the end of the season rather than try and see if his condition would improve over the summer. We don’t know just how much progress he was making during his offseason conditioning program — and, if you follow him on social media, he wasn’t afraid to let you know he was working out — but we do know that this three-month timeline is something that would be drastically different if he underwent surgery to repair this issue in late May or June rather than the middle of July.

But now Allegri is short a midfielder for the first two months of the season even before the rest of his team arrives from post-international duty holidays. And for a position group that has been under the microscope like Juve’s midfield has, seeing a player who could have been a serious contributor for Allegri in his first season back at the club is a tough thing to see.