Injury updates: Conceiçāo to miss time, Gonzalez avoids serious problem

09/06/2024 05:20 PM

The news has been mixed the last few days for Juve's new attacking signings.

Over the last few days, a familiar feeling has begun to creep into the minds of Juventus fans who, over the last few years, have gotten used to an abundance of injury news over the course of the season.

Here we go again.

In the last few weeks injury scares have popped up for two of Juve's newest signings, Francisco Conceiçāo and Nico Gonzalez. Both players signed at the end of the transfer window and were expected to be important pieces to the puzzle, as well as some much-needed depth in the wide areas of the attack, which had been in desperate need of bodies all summer before the two signed.

When the injury scares arrived, it seemed like the depth chart was going right back where it started. Fortunately, the news isn't all bad, but it's not great either.

We'll start with the bad news: Conceiçāo is going to have to miss some time.

The winger, who had not been called up for Portugal's Nations League games and was training in Turin, suffered a calf strain during Wednesday's session. It's not expected to be too serious, but he's expected to be out for a month.

Gonzalez's injury put a few more hearts in mouths because it happened far more publicly, while he was playing in Argentina's World Cup qualifier against Chile yesterday. He was withdrawn in the 51st minute after an apparent ankle injury, but the news is better here.

Gonzalez's injury was of the impact variety as opposed to a soft-tissue problem, and according to the latest reports (roughly two and a half hours before post time) Gonzalez has avoided anything serious and could be available for Argentina's Tuesday tilt with Colombia—although it remains to be seen whether manager Lionel Scaloni will risk him.

With Gonzalez unlikely to miss much time and Tim Weah on track to return for the Empoli game on September 14, the depth chart on the wings hasn't taken as serious a hit as first feared. It's still an extreme bummer to lose Conceiçāo after performing as well as he did against Roma, but at the very least the time he loses will be minimal.

Of course, any hit to the depth chart will cause problems given the amount of games Juve is about to start playing with the Champions League set to commence in two weeks. Fortunately, though, what's happened now will be more of an annoyance than a debilitating loss.