As Juventus bowed out of the Champions League on Friday night, Matthijs de Ligt has now revealed he’ll likely spend the break recovering from shoulder surgery.
The 20-year-old joined the Bianconeri last summer from Ajax and went on to make 39 appearances in his first campaign in Italy as he established himself as an important figure in the heart of the backline for Maurizio Sarri’s side.
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It ended with a Serie A title, but there was disappointment this week as Juventus were knocked out of the Champions League by Lyon at the round-of-16 stage on Friday night.
With the season now concluded, De Ligt has revealed that he will undergo an operation on his shoulder as he has been bothered by it for a while after initially suffering a dislocation in November, but it wasn’t necessarily urgent to have a procedure.
“Now I will have to operate on my shoulder, it is something I have to do. That will be my focus now. Obviously I’m sorry, now I need time to recover,” he told reporters, as reported by Tuttomercatoweb.
There was no suggestion over a possible recovery timeline and so it remains to be seen just how long the Dutch international is sidelined for, but given the nature of the injury and if it’s serious enough to require surgery, then it could be something that keeps him out of action for a while.
That will be a blow for Juventus in terms of their preparation for the new campaign as there is of course a short turnaround this summer given the extended season after the coronavirus lockdown, and so time will tell whether or not De Ligt will be ready for the new season which has been pencilled in to begin on September 19 in Italy.