OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Leandro Paredes out two weeks with hamstring injury

Ever since Juventus came back from the September international break, the amount of playing time Leandro Paredes was getting was noticeably less than what things were like before players went off to play for their respective national teams.

And for the next couple of weeks, it will be even less.

Juventus announced this weekend that Paredes suffered a hamstring injury during Saturday’s training session that will keep him out for the next two weeks as the Bianconeri’s injury problem suddenly becomes an issue again just as it looked it was improving at a major level. This means Paredes will miss Juve’s final two Champions League group stage games as well as the Derby d’Italia against Inter before potentially returning for the last couple of games before the World Cup break arrives in the middle of November.

The official diagnosis from Juventus’ website:

Following a muscle problem reported at the end of today’s training session, Leandro Paredes underwent diagnostic tests at J | Medical, which revealed a low-grade lesion to the hamstring of the left thigh. Approximately 15 days will be required for his full recovery.

Juventus now has its big summer signing in defense out with a muscle injury, their summer signing in midfield in which Max Allegri fought hard for now out with a muscle injury. They’re down to two natural fullbacks because of a muscle injury. They’re just all over the place again and we’re back to where we can’t go a week — or less — without somebody else going down with some sort of muscle injury.

We don’t know how Paredes got hurt in training, but the fact that he hasn’t exactly been playing much could have played some sort of role. Going from a heavy workload to just one start over the last couple of weeks can’t be easy, let alone something your body can easily adjust to knowing how many minutes he had been previously playing.

With Paredes out, you gotta think that Manuel Locatelli will shift back into a deep-lying role that he had been struggling in prior to Friday’s win over Empoli. But with a lot of fixtures between now and the World Cup break, just who might be next in the pecking order if Locatelli is given a breather — Danilo maybe? — is an interesting part of the equation.

Either way, it’s still a pretty bad look on Juventus when your two big summer signings for the midfield haven’t exactly given you much of anything to write home about when you’re just a couple of weeks away from the World Cup break. But, then again, that’s Juve’s 2022-23 season in a nutshell, I guess.