Juventus winger Federico Chiesa injured his left knee during The Old Lady‘s incredible 4-3 comeback victory over Roma last month.
The post-match examination determined the Italy international suffered a ruptured (full tear) anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, and he subsequently underwent reconstruction surgery towards the end of January.
In the above video, Dr. Rajpal Brar DPT discusses Chiesa’s injury with an eye on his potential return timeline. He also looks at the latest research to explain a key inflection point that is being shown to reduce re-injury risk by nearly six times.
Chiesa is expected to miss the rest of the season, making Massimiliano Allegri’s decision to include him in his Champions League squad for the knockouts all the more interesting.
Winter arrivals Dusan Vlahovic and Denis Zakaria came in as straight swaps for Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur, while Allegri elected to keep Chiesa in his roster for the round of 16, ignoring Brazilian wonderkid Kaio Jorge in the process.
Champions League clubs are allowed to register three new players for the knockouts, but with their third January signing, Federico Gatti, returning back on loan to Frosinone, Allegri has opted to retain Chiesa — though that still doesn’t explain his decision to snub Jorge.
? Your #JuveUCL squad for the knockout stages ⚪️⚫️ ?
— JuventusFC ???? (@juventusfcen) February 2, 2022
Since joining Juve in the summer from Santos, 20-year-old Jorge has featured sporadically, so far mustering only nine appearances in Serie A, all of which have come from the bench, though he was inadvertently handed a rare 64-minute runout against Venezia after coming on for an injured Paulo Dybala — though he was ultimately substituted off later on in the match.
Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT, (@3cbperformance) is a physiotherapist, movement expert, fitness trainer, sports scientist and mindfulness coach. He runs the LA and online based physiotherapy and athletic performance clinic 3CB Performance, and you can subscribe to his Youtube channel (which posts analyses of Lionel Messi and more).