Reports: Juan Cabal suffers season-ending ACL injury on international duty

11/12/2024 06:10 PM

This stinks. This really stinks.

It took all of two days of the November international break for Juventus to get the news that no club wants to hear when their players head out to represent their country.

And now, completely out of nowhere, Juve are looking at one of their South American defenders missing the rest of the 2024-25 season due to a major knee injury.

According to Colombian journalist Pipe Sierra and further confirmed by SportItalia's Alfredo Pedulla and Sky Sport Italia on Tuesday night, Juventus fullback Juan Cabal has suffered what many fear is a torn ACL while on international duty with Colombia. While nothing has been confirmed by Juventus as of this writing, Cabal has already booked his ticket back to Turin where he will undergo further tests by Juve's medical staff to confirm if his injury is indeed what many are fearing.

The 23-year-old Cabal has been one of the newest members on the Colombia roster so far this season, with his first international cap coming back in September.

Colombia is preparing for their 2026 World Cup qualifying matchup against Uruguay on Friday.

If the fears turn out to be true and Cabal does indeed have a torn ACL, it will be the second time in less than two months that a Juventus player has suffered said injury following Gleison Bremer getting injured in the comeback win over RB Leipzig. In Bremer's absence, it has left Thiago Motta short of option in the center of defense, and not having Cabal available for the rest of the season would very much do the same to the fullback position no matter how versatile Andrea Cambiaso has proven to be.

Juventus signed Cabal for an initial fee of €11 million this past summer after an impressive season with Hellas Verona. Through his first three months in Turin, Cabal has played 620 minutes in nine appearances in all competitions. Some of it has been good, other parts have been a little nervy, but Cabal has certainly showed potential during his early days with Juventus.

But now, once we know for sure what's going on, he's probably going to go a good amount of time before his next appearance for Juventus — which, no matter who it is, is just simply unfortunate.

In Cabal's (expected) absence, the only options Motta has at left back will be Cambiaso and Next Gen alum Jonas Rouhi. Juve director Cristiano Giuntoli was already expected to try and bring in more depth in the center of defense during the January transfer window, so now it feels like a very logical step for a fullback to be added to that list.