U.S. men’s national team midfielder Weston McKennie has sustained a shoulder injury during the club’s preseason tour of the U.S. and will miss at least three weeks, the club confirmed.
Juventus announced that tests “revealed a capsular lesion of the left shoulder. The player will begin rehabilitation, three weeks’ differentiated work will be required.” On Sunday, La Gazzetta Dello Sport reported that McKennie is expected to miss a month.
McKennie has not played in a preseason match this summer, including Juventus’s trip to his hometown of Dallas to face Barcelona. The USMNT star has been linked with a transfer away from the Italian giants, although he previously said that it hasn’t impacted his approach to the season.
“I may be set right now where I’m here, but maybe two weeks down the road I might be having a crappy preseason, and they’re just like, ‘We don’t find you a Juventus player anymore,’” McKennie told Sports Illustrated earlier this month. “I’m very calm when it comes to things like that.
“And I know the one thing that I pride myself on is that I can always say that I give 100%. So I’m not worried about whether or not I’m going to perform good or not.”
However, a recent knee injury to Paul Pogba has led many to dispel the rumors. Now, Juventus may be facing an injury crisis in midfield ahead of its Aug. 15 Serie A opener against Sassuolo with both out of contention.
The injury also presents a potential concern for the USMNT heading into the last international break before the World Cup kicks off in November. At the end of September, the U.S. will face a pair of Qatar-bound teams in Japan and Saudi Arabia in its final run-up to the tournament, and McKennie will barely have had any match time before then, should his reported timetable for recovery prove accurate.
After making 46 appearances in his debut season for Juventus in 2020–21, McKennie appeared in 29 games last season under Massimiliano Allegri during an injury-plagued campaign. However, earlier this summer, the Juventus manager said he has high hopes for the U.S. star.
“[McKennie] is probably the best American player playing in Europe,” Allegri said in a preseason press conference. “I think it’s very important for him to continue showing the high levels that he has at Juve.”
