Almost all muscle injuries at Napoli. Conte is in emergency for the match against Juventus. Of the starting midfielders, only McTominay remains
The latest to stop is Lobotka due to muscle strain in his leg, however the Scotsman had returned from a previous injury a few weeks ago. The Napoli midfielders, already counted due to the absences of De Bruyne, Anguissa and Gilmour (muscle injuries), will only be “Panini stickers” ahead of Sunday’s delicate match at Maradona against Juventus. McTominay, Elmas and Vergara remain.
It seems like a “macumba”, but every week a footballer under Antonio Conte is unavailable. There are six players in total – and all of them important – injured. Lukaku is the oldest, he stopped in August during the friendly match with Olimpiakos due to a high-grade lesion of the rectus femoris in his left thigh. The Belgian center forward should return shortly having completed his rehabilitation period. Kevin De Bruyne, however, stopped while taking the penalty against Inter: high-grade hamstring injury. His 2025 certainly ended on that day. Like De Bruyne, in the national team, Anguissa suffered a high-grade injury to the biceps femoris of his left thigh. It will return at the beginning of 2026. Billy Gilmouranother midfielder, underwent surgery last Monday to resolve a pubalgia problem, Buongiorno also suffered the same fate in the summer. For Gutiérrez, one of the new signings of the season, however the injury is traumatic: sprained ankle during training. The goalkeeper must be added to the long list Alex Meret who fractured the second metatarsal of his right foot, has been out since the eve of Napoli-Inter. He took off the cast a few days ago and will return at the beginning of January.
In a long and competitive championship, the difficulties do not only come from the opponents but also from internal pitfalls, such as injuries and suspensions and the firsts for Conte have been a constant so far in the season. Rrahmani, Good morning, Politano and Spinazzola they were also stopped for a few weeks, the last two having recently returned. The double track – championship and Champions League – and the intense training sessions, in the few days remaining outside the matches, have evidently had an impact. The fact is that on Sunday Conte will still have to invent a solution for the challenge against Juventus. Lobotka, who was injured during the warm-up for Cagliari in the Italian Cup (a match he did not play), will return in three weeks. Napoli hopes to recover him for the Super Cup in Riyadh.