Federico Gatti suddenly a doubt to face Atalanta due to muscle fatigue

It seemingly hasn’t mattered what month it is during the 2024-25 season, dealing with injuries at the back has been a constant.

Basically from September to the present day, there’s been somebody out injured and that almost certainly hasn’t been limited to one or two players.

However, one Juve defender hasn’t officially been on the injury list so far this season: Federico Gatti, the Bianconeri’s clear-cut leader in minutes played in all competitions.

Well, not on the injury list until this week.

Gatti, who celebrated his 100th appearance as a Juventus player in Monday’s win over Hellas Verona, has been dealing with muscle fatigue and subsequently forced to training away from the group on Thursday and Friday.

It suddenly means that Gatti is a big-time doubt for Juventus’ matchup against third-place Atalanta on Sunday night at the Allianz Stadium, leaving Thiago Motta with another matchday in which options are extremely limited in the center of defense.

While Gatti trained separately from the group the last two days, Juventus did at least receive some good news Friday: Renato Veiga — who has been out since the second leg of the Champions League play-off round exit against PSV Eindhoven — did return to training with the rest of the group and will be available to face Atalanta.

If Gatti does miss Sunday’s game due to muscle fatigue like it seems like he will as things currently stand right now, it would mark just the second league fixture that he has not started since the beginning of October.

As virtually every other center back (and fullback) has dealt with some sort of injury over the course of the last five or six months, Gatti has been the one constant in Motta’s starting lineup both because how well he’s played and also simply out of necessity.

Gatti is the only player on the Juventus roster to play over 3,000 minutes in all competitions this season, playing nearly 350 more minutes than the next highest outfield player (Manuel Locatelli with 2,778).

But just as Pierre Kalulu is back from injury, here’s the first injury that Gatti has dealt with in months, if not longer than that.

With Gatti likely out, it will almost certainly be Kalulu and winter signing Lloyd Kelly starting in the center of Juve’s defense against Atalanta.

If Veiga had a couple more training sessions in his legs maybe he would be in contention for a starting spot over Kelly, but it feels a little too soon for the Chelsea loanee to jump back into the starting lineup alongside Kalulu.

That means the Kalulu-Kelly partnership in the center of defense will get its first test from the opening whistle after a short test run in the win over Hellas Verona after Kalulu came on for Gatti midway through the second half.

With a win on Sunday night, Juventus can move level on points with Atlanata.