Juventus: The full extent of Denis Zakaria’s injury revealed

Juventus midfielder Denis Zakaria is expected to miss the next three weeks as a result of the thigh injury he sustained in Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Empoli.

Zakaria was forced off in the first half of the weekend’s win and replaced by Manuel Locatelli. His injury leaves Massimiliano Allegri with just three senior midfield options at his disposal with Weston McKennie sidelined for the next two months after fracturing his foot.

The Swiss international has impressed since joining from Borussia Monchengladbach in January. He scored on his Bianconeri debut against Hellas Verona and has appeared a cool, composed and elegant figure in the middle of the park.

However, Zakaria, who enjoyed a pretty clean bill of health outside of his long-term knee injury during his time at Gladbach, has already endured an injury setback in Turin.

Denis Zakaria is expected to be sidelined for three weeks with a thigh injury

The tests Zakaria underwent at J-Medical on Monday morning revealed “a low-grade injury to the tendon of the adductor longus muscle of the left thigh”, per Romeo Agresti.

He’s expected to miss 20 days as a result.

Therefore, Juventus are set to lean on Locatelli, Arthur Melo and Adrien Rabiot for much of March as Zakaria recovers. The Swiss international will likely be out of action until the international break, and his first game back could be the Derby d’Italia against Inter Milan at the start of April.

Zakaria is one of several players that Allegri won’t be able to call upon for the upcoming Coppa Italia semi-final first leg away at Fiorentina. La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Giovanni Albanese confirmed that Paulo Dybala will miss Wednesday’s clash, as will Giorgio Chiellini, who could return to the fold for Sunday’s Serie A clash at home to Spezia.

The statuses of Federico Bernardeschi and Daniele Rugani are unknown.