Juventus suffer another defensive injury against Udinese in Coppa Italia

Defensive injuries are beginning to stack up for Luciano Spalletti and Juventus, as Federico Gatti was forced off while clutching his hamstring during the second half of Juventus’s Coppa Italia Round of 16 tie with Udinese on Tuesday night. 

The Bianconeri took a first-half lead thanks to a Matteo Palma own goal, but both teams had goals ruled out for offside during the first half. 

You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.

Just as Udinese sprung an attack into the Juventus half in the 54th minute, Gatti clutched his hamstring and held his other arm up, signalling to the dugout. He tracked back, uncomfortably, and was relieved to see Miretti tap the ball out of play once the Bianconeri had regained possession. 

The Italy international was seen to by medical staff on the pitch for around a minute, before being assisted off the field of play to a round of applause from the Allianz Stadium crowd. He was then seen walking, on his own, down the tunnel and towards the medical room. 

It is expected that he will report to JMedical for further assessment in the coming days. 

The Bianconeri were already without six first-team players for the Coppa Italia on Tuesday evening, which included two centre-backs in Bremer and Daniele Rugani. Dusan Vlahovic is also out long-term, and Mattia Perin, Carlo Pinsoglio, and Arkadiusz Milik were also unavailable. 

It could have been worse for the Bianconeri, as Teun Koopmeiners also required treatment shortly before Gatti went down. The Dutchman had an Udinese player fall on top of him and immediately clutched his shoulder. He was cleared to continue shortly afterwards, although came back on still wincing.