Fabio Miretti picks up ankle injury while on international duty

There’s always at least one. That’s because those are the rules of international breaks.

And of course it has to happen to one of Juventus’ few bright spots this season.

Young midfielder Fabio Miretti has left the Italian Under-21 national team’s camp after picking up an ankle injury in training on Saturday. The 19-year-old Miretti — who started the Azzurrini’s 2-0 loss to England this past Thursday — has already returned to Turin and will get further tests conducted at J Medical by the Juve medical staff to fully understand the severity of the injury.

As you can probably guess, this has suddenly put Miretti’s status for next weekend’s return to action against Bologna in sudden doubt, with the tests he has yet to undergo the true determining factor in just how long he could be out.

It just kinda fits into the way this season has gone so far, doesn’t it? Not only is it an injury during a time in which Juventus can’t afford one — let’s just go ahead and re-visit the list of players missing out on the Benfica and Monza games due to injury — but it’s one to a player like Miretti who has broken into the starting lineup and has held his own for the most part.

And, to top it all off, it comes in the midfield.

Ah, that wonderful midfield where Juve seemingly has as many players injured as they do healthy. Who needs depth anyways, right? I guess that’s too much to ask.

Juventus went into the international break with Manuel Locatelli not called up to Roberto Mancini’s Italy squad due to injury. Same goes with Adrien Rabiot and France. As we know, Paul Pogba is still on the mend after undergoing surgery on his knee, with his return date still very much up in the air as we get closer and closer to October.

Now we add Miretti to the injury list, giving Juve four midfielders that are dealing with some sort of injury. And now like the others, we don’t know just when we might see Miretti next. It could be next weekend when Juve returns to the field against Bologna on Sunday night, but it could also be a week or two from now and cause him to miss a few games.

That’s not really something Max Allegri can afford right now no matter how much he might want to play Danilo as a midfielder with so many players out injured.