Juventus have confirmed that Federico Chiesa has undergone successful knee surgery and is expected to miss seven months as a result.
Chiesa tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee following a challenge with Chris Smalling before Juve completed a thrilling comeback against AS Roma earlier this month. The Italian attempted to play on but he went down for a second time minutes later after trying to burst away from Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
His detrimental diagnosis was revealed a day later at J-Medical as a sombre looking Chiesa greeted fans upon his arrival and exit. The 24-year-old was expected to undergo surgery in Innsbruck at the start of last week, but illness forced him to postpone.
Juventus confirm Federico Chiesa has undergone successful surgery on his torn ACL
We're waiting for you, Fede! ❤️
— JuventusFC 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@juventusfcen) January 23, 2022
Juve’s trip to AC Milan was the fixture that ignited Chiesa’s debut campaign in Turin and, subsequently, a career-defining 2021. The electrifying winger scored a brace to sink the Rossoneri last January and Chiesa’s absence was certainly a contributing factor to Sunday night’s dire stalemate.
Nevertheless, ahead of the clash, Juventus confirmed in a statement on their official website that Chiesa had undergone successful knee surgery before offering an approximation for his return.
The statement read: “This afternoon, Federico Chiesa underwent surgery to reconstruct the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. The operation, performed at the Hochrum clinic in Innsbruck by Professor Christian Fink and in the presence of Juventus’ Dr Stefanini, proved to be a perfect success.
“The expected recovery time is approximately seven months,” the club added.
This projection means Chiesa will, as we all suspected, miss the remainder of the 2021/22 season and the beginning of the following campaign. Hopefully, we see him in action by the Autumn and be close to 100% fitness for the start of the World Cup in November, presuming that Italy qualifies (which is no gimme).
The winger will, of course, miss the all-important play-offs in March with the Azzurri expected to face Portugal for a place at Qatar ’22.