Report: Federico Chiesa, Paul Pogba aim for late-October return to the field

The names on Juventus’ injury list are more noticeable than those on the field. Juve’s injury list involves plenty of star power, and that has been the case pretty much ever since the club reported for preseason training in July.

We’re in the final days of September now, and it’s not like things have gotten much better.

But, according to Tuttosport on Sunday, two of the biggest names on Juventus’ injury list are aiming to be back around the same time come next month. It’s a rather important fixture for this team, and one that could very well determine just what European competition those two big names, Federico Chiesa and Paul Pogba, play in come the new year. Those two stars on the Juventus injury report want to make their return to the field at some point in late October, most notably before Juventus’ Oct. 25 showdown with Benfica in Lisbon that could very well settle Juve’s fate in the Champions League.

For Chiesa, this makes sense considering Tuttosport reported earlier this week that the 24-year-old Italian winger is aiming to be back to partial training with the group in early October, setting up a potential return to the squad later in the month. And while we are all eager to see Chiesa on the field again and being one of Juventus’ best players, he will likely be used more of a super sub rather than a player who bears heavy minutes considering Max Allegri has been saying for weeks now we shouldn’t expect anything major from Chiesa until January.

For Pogba, things seem to be a little more complicated considering his knee surgery comes after a failed attempt to not undergo the knife, which didn’t go all that well at all.

Tuttosport says that Pogba’s rehabilitation progress is going “swiftly,” but even then if he were to return in late October it would be at least a couple of weeks earlier than the expected two-month absence after surgery on Sept. 5. Maybe his role would be much of the same as Chiesa whenever he first returns since he’s not appeared in any sort of match since Juve’s preseason friendly in late July against Chivas in Las Vegas, but the thought of him trying to again get back on the field earlier than anticipated is not totally reassuring.

Remember, ever since Pogba underwent surgery mostly everybody figured it would be a race for him to be fit enough for the World Cup, not exactly a “Will he be able to help Juventus before the Champions League group stage is over?” kind of thing.