Report: Arek Milik suffers setback in comeback from lengthy injury absence

01/05/2025 04:40 PM

Waiting, waiting and now more waiting.

For much of the 2024-25 season, the assumption has been that Arek Milik's return to the fold would come at some point early in the new year. The month of January, specifically, was the general target month, even though we didn't have a specific time in the first few weeks of 2025.

It appears the wait will be even longer for Juventus to actually have an in-house solution to the lack of a backup for Dusan Vlahovic.

According to Sky Italia and La Gazzetta dello Sport on Sunday, Milik has suffered in his comeback from the knee injury and subsequent surgery that has kept him out since the early days of last summer. Milik's return had been previously projected to come at some point in January, but now it is even more uncertain with a calf injury that is described as a muscle overload by Sky Italia.

Sky's report about Milik says that his potential return has now been pushed back another couple of weeks, even though we weren't totally sure when the previous return date was supposed to be.

So, even though we are still very much at the beginning of January, it's starting to feel like Milik's return won't happen until late-January or early-February at the very earliest with this latest setback. And considering what the January schedule is going to be like, you have to think that there being no Milik even potentially being available now very much pushes the need for an actual alternative to Vlahovic has moved even closer to the top of the winter transfer window list than before.

It may not be as important as the need for defensive depth, but it's close, folks.

The two big names that have been linked to Juventus in recent days have been Paris Saint-Germain striker Randal Kolo Muani and Manchester United's Joshua Zirkzee, who is reportedly keen on returning to Italy after his move to England has not gone well at all. Both players are being thrown out there as short-term loan options for now, but there could very well end up being an option to buy attached to a deal to bring in a new striker.