Report: Francisco Conceição a doubt for Turin Derby after missing Supercoppa semis

01/04/2025 06:25 PM

Injuries. They will never leave us.

It wouldn't be this Juventus season without sweating out the injury status of a 2024 summer signing at least once every couple of weeks. We've done it with Douglas Luiz. We've done it with Teun Koopmeiners and Nico Gonzalez, too. Even Khephren Thuram has been in this group, albeit basically right after the season got underway back in August.

Now, we get to add Francisco Conceição to the list again.

According to Giovanni Albanese of La Gazzetta dello Sport on Saturday, Conceição is now very much a doubt for next weekend's Turin Derby with cross-town rivals Torino at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino after he was forced out in warmups ahead of the Italian Super Cup semifinal against AC Milan in Saudi Arabia. It meant that not only Juventus were suddenly without one of their top playmakers — although, Kenan Yildiz stepping into the starting lineup on short notice worked out quite well — Conceição didn't get to face his father, Sergio, in his Milan managerial debut. (They did, however, have a nice embrace after the final whistle, which was probably made even more meaningful considering the injury to Francisco and the disappointment that came with it.)

Per Albanese, Juventus arrived back in Turin around 8 p.m. local time, with Conceição set for scans Sunday morning at J Medical.

Considering Juventus aren't as much in injury hell as they were a few weeks ago, there are now at least options available of Conceição is forced to miss any sort of time.

But with the schedule that is coming up for Juventus in January — Milan, Napoli and the two final Champions League league phase fixtures await — seeing Conceição miss any sort of time is going to be a big-time development for Thiago Motta and the team's attempt to get back in the win column on a consistent basis regardless of what competition it is.

This wouldn't be the first time that Conceição has suffered a muscle injury since his summer arrival from Porto on loan in late-August. He missed three weeks and five games total for club and country back in September. Upon his return — as well as with the subsequent injury to Gonzalez that kept him out for two months — Conceição quickly established himself as a key piece in Motta's 4-2-3-1 setup on the right wing.

Conceição has three goals and four assists in 19 appearances (13 starts) across all competitions so far this season.