Juventus are claimed to be doing all they can to avoid having to operate on Arthur’s leg, with hope the midfielder can return in time for the Champions League.

The Brazilian played the full 90 minutes of our win over Roma on February 6, but hasn’t been seen since.

TuttoSport claims that the 24 year-old has been playing through the pain of the issue in order to help his team, but has had to miss the last two weeks in order to try and recover to full strength.

Juve currently have a number of players missing or struggling to find 100% at present also, but many are earmarking a return against Lazio in 10 days time, with a view to picking up minutes just before we take on Porto in the second-leg of our Champions League knockout round.

Arthur could well be key in our ability to reach the next round, with him believed to be the most creative and penetrative of our options at CM, ahead of Rodrigo Bentancur.

It is interesting to realise that Arthur has only featured in one loss in a Juventus shirt this term, the one against his former side Barcelona, while he was either absent or benched for our other losses.

We will know more on when he should be able to return when he finishes with his focal shockwave sessions end next week, as he could well need surgery if there isn’t sufficient recovery.

Patrick