The knee gives way, and the season shifts
Khephren Thuram will not play again in 2026. La Gazzetta dello Sport broke the news this morning. The Juventus midfielder is headed for surgery in Lyon on a knee issue that has been bothering him for months. He faces at least four months out.
The problem has been hanging around since the end of last season. Patellofemoral syndrome. The treatment kept changing, but nothing fixed the root cause. After several checks, the 25-year-old Frenchman opted for surgery. Dr Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet, a leading knee specialist, will operate arthroscopically to treat a patellar chondropathy.
A comeback is now expected in 2027. Not before.
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Two months of prep, zero minutes
The warning signs were there from July. Thuram missed every Juventus pre-season friendly this summer. He reappeared on the bench for the Serie A opener against Frosinone, but never got on. The staff then rested him before the visit of Parma. He has not played a single competitive minute since the restart.
Luciano Spalletti has lost a starter from the heart of his midfield before the season has properly started. Bad timing? You bet. The Turin boss had already taken the blow of Kenan Yildiz’s left-foot operation only a few days earlier. Two key men sidelined in the space of a week, and Juventus have barely got going.
Pape Matar Sarr gets the keys
Turin do have a ready-made answer, but it is a shaky one. Pape Matar Sarr arrived in the final hours of the transfer window. The former Tottenham midfielder is expected to step into the middle of the park. The catch is that the Senegalese international is also coming back from a muscle injury and still does not look fully up to speed.
That matters for anyone tracking Serie A closely. A Turin midfield without its most mobile runner changes the way games are controlled. Less running power, fewer quick breaks, more stop-start spells. That could shape the goal markets and the feel of matches in the coming weeks.
Thuram, meanwhile, will spend the autumn in rehab.
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