Juventus defender Merih Demiral has been ruled out for around three weeks with a thigh injury.
The Turkey international sustained the damage late on in Tuesday s 3-2 win over Porto, which saw Juve exit the Champions League on away goals at the last-16 stage.
Juve confirmed on Thursday that Demiral, who has been plagued by a number of injury setbacks over the past year, suffered low-grade tissue damage.
He is expected to miss 20 days, potentially ruling the 23-year-old out of Juventus Serie A games with Cagliari, Napoli and Benevento.
Demiral is subsequently a major doubt for Turkey s World Cup qualifying triple-header against the Netherlands, Norway and Latvia later this month.
to this Totò Schillaci strike vs. Milan
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Juve have an identical win rate with and without Demiral in Serie A this season, winning 60 per cent of their 10 games with the centre-back in their starting lineup and the same amount in the 15 games without.
He leads the way in terms of blocks per 90 minutes among Juve defenders in Serie A this term with 0.88, while only Giorgio Chiellini (3.72) has managed more clearances and headed clearances (2.29) than Demiral s 3.63 and 2.16 respectively.
However, the former Sassuolo man lacks in other areas, his 60.26 attempted passes per game putting him some way behind Matthijs de Ligt s 76.26.
In fact, only Gianluca Frabotta (51.16) attempts fewer passes on average than Demiral among Juve defenders to have featured more than once in the league in 2020-21.
