Juventus captain Giorgio Chiellini has been ruled out for around six months after undergoing surgery on a torn knee ligament, the Italian Seria A champions have said, report Reuters.
Centre back Chiellini, 35, sustained the injury during a training session last Friday, with new signing Matthijs de Ligt replacing him in the Juventus lineup in their 4-3 win over Napoli last weekend.
“Giorgio Chiellini underwent surgery to reconstruct the anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee,” Juventus said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The intervention, performed at the Hochrum clinic in Innsbruck by professor Christian Fink in the presence of the Juventus club doctor, Dr. Tzouroudis, was perfectly successful.
“The expected recovery time is around 6 months.”
Juve have won their opening two league matches of the season as they chase their ninth consecutive top-flight title but they must do so now without Chiellini for the majority of the campaign.
The Italy international is likely to return in March, meaning he could be fit for the Champions League quarter-finals, if Juventus make it that far.
Hazard brothers ruled out of Belgian qualifiers
Eden Hazard and his brother Thorgan will miss Belgium’s Euro 2020 qualifiers against San Marino and Scotland through injuries, the Belgian football association said.
The pair reported to the team camp in Tubize on Tuesday for medical checks which confirmed Eden is suffering from a muscle strain while his younger brother has a rib injury. Eden has yet to make his league debut for Real Madrid since his move to Chelsea because of the injury.
No replacements have been named by coach Roberto Martinez.
Belgium, who have won their opening four qualifiers in Group I, play in San Marino on Friday and then Scotland at Hampden Park on Monday.
Italy's injured list expands as Insigne leaves squad
Key forward Lorenzo Insigne has left Italy's squad with a muscular problem ahead of European Championship qualifiers against Armenia and Finland, report agencies. Defenders Giorgio Chiellini and Mattia De Sciglio, as well as midfielder Bryan Cristante, have also been ruled out due to injury.
Insigne was injured while playing for Napoli in a 4-3 loss to Juventus on Saturday but still reported to the Azzurri training camp on Monday.
Insigne will be replaced by Freiburg winger Vincenzo Grifo.
Francesco Acerbi, Danilo D'Ambrosio and Sandro Tonali were called in for Chiellini, De Sciglio and Cristante, respectively.
