Federico Gatti to miss at least a month after suffering meniscus injury in Juve’s Coppa Italia win

It was about 12 months ago in which Juventus’ defensive crunch became its most extreme. It forced two players, Federico Gatti and Pierre Kalulu, to essentially play every single minute or every single game because there simply wasn’t anybody else available due to injuries. It stretched them to their physical limits, and forced Juve to dip into the January market multiple times to bring in some much-needed help with depth.

Now, it’s an injury to Gatti that’s added to the depth crisis.

Juventus announced on Wednesday that Gatti will require surgery after picking up a medial meniscus tear in Tuesday night’s Coppa Italia Round of 16 win over Udinese at the Allianz Stadium in Turin. It’s much more than the initial diagnosis Luciano Spalletti threw out. during his post-match press conference when he said Gatti picked up a knee sprain. But the tests that Gatti underwent revealed much more than just a sprain, as he is set to undergo surgery on the meniscus tear “in the coming days,” according to Juventus’ update.

Here is the short yet very important update after Gatti underwent scans Wednesday morning:

Federico Gatti, who was substituted during the second half of the Juventus-Udinese match following a right knee sprain, underwent further radiological tests at J|medical this morning. The tests revealed a medial meniscus tear, requiring surgery, which will be performed in the coming days.

You pretty much knew no sort of good news was on its way when Gatti left J Medical after nearly an hour-long visit on crutches. It was a sign of what was to come.

So now Juventus will head to Naples to face Napoli this weekend with two healthy center backs: Kalulu and Lloyd Kelly. Considering he has played in a back three most of the time since Spalletti took over as manager in late-October, we can probably considering Teun Koopmeiners as a center back option at this point as well. But the simple fact that Juve currently have more natural center backs injured as compared to healthy, it’s just a continuation of the depth issues they had at the back last season when Kalulu and Gatti had to play so often.

Daniele Rugani and Gleison Bremer aren’t expected back for the trip to Naples, with the former potentially being back for next week’s Champions League matchup against Pafos. Bremer’s status is a little more unknown, with a potential mid- or late-December return to action still potentially in the cards after his own meniscus surgery.

Gatti has already dealt with physical issues this season, having to slowly ramp up coming off the Club World Cup thanks to the heel injury he suffered toward the end of the 2024-25 campaign. He has played in 14 games in all competitions — which is well off the pace from last season when he made 42 appearances and played nearly 3,300 minutes under Thiago Motta and then Igor Tudor.